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PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH 
JOURNALISM 1702-1742 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 

OF ARTS AND LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE 

DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

(DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH) 



BY 

DAVID HARRISON STEVENS 



A Private Edition 

Distributed by 

TtrK University of Chicago Libraries 

1916 



/ 



K7 
£7* 



PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 



Stye Hmupraita of (Et|irago 



PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH 
JOURNALISM 1702-1742 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 

OF ARTS AND LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE 

DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

(DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH) 



BY 

DAVID HARRISON STEVENS 



A Private Edition 

Distributed by 

The University of Chicago Libraries 

1916 



3/ : 

• S? 



1 
UL 3 OW 



TO 

My Mother 



PREFACE 

A study of eighteenth century periodicals lies on the borderland 
between literary and political history. Most of the papers printed from 
1700 to 1750 were inspired by political events; consequently they are 
in many ways valuable for students of party government. The 
materials of such periodicals as well as the causes behind their pro- 
duction are of interest to the political historian. An investigator of 
the literary taste of the period will likewise turn to the periodicals for 
facts regarding the vogue of such essays as first appeared in the Review, 
the Taller, and the Spectator. He will find also in the popularity of the 
news journals ground for broader conclusions as to the economic condi- 
tions of all literary production during the eighteenth century, and will 
inevitably realize that a constant demand for partisan and factional 
newspapers led many writers into channels quite unnatural for men of 
literary tastes. The student of politics is the one most interested in the 
partisan periodicals that these men produced, but the student of litera- 
ture shares his regard for the economic phases of journal production in an 
age of literary dependence as well as of party development. 

In the course of the present study reference is made to many facts of 
eighteenth century social practice. Literature and politics were both 
subjected then to the pressure of new forces, chief of which was the ten- 
dency to exalt the common good of society at. the expense of special 
privilege. In 1700 "divine right" was a failing principle. Men were 
taking the place of a lifeless theory. Yet the transformation was not 
made without cost. The bloodless Revolution of 1688 marked the turn 
from a full trust in kings to the doctrines supporting modern modes of 
government, but that was only the preliminary to a grievous civil struggle. 

To win the prize of political domination offered to men of remarkable 
individuality, Whigs and Tories fell upon one another with the greatest 
fury. Greed for power possessed individuals. Leaders were ruled by 
their ambitions, for the new constitutional provisions seemed to afford 
unlimited opportunity for self-advancement. Such intimate friends as 
Oxford and Bolingbroke worked together for a time in order to win politi- 
cal power, only to fall soon into suspicion, then into open hostility, and 
at last into a struggle that brought one to political ruin and the other to 
loss of everything excepting his intrepid resolution. The situation of 
Oxford and Bolingbroke in 1714 represents the worst state possible for 
individuals to reach under an unregulated system of constitutional 



VIII PREFACE 

government: that of Robert Walpole ten years later displays the possi- 
bilities of such conditions for a politician strong enough to dominate 
the minor actors in the play of statecraft. The three embody much of 
the eighteenth century theory and practice in political matters, and their 
acts show what a spirit of opportunism possessed the age. 

The men striving for a livelihood through a use of their pens were 
naturally affected by such conditions. In some cases reasons are found 
for a complete change in their interests. Such data, which may be 
counted proof of the spirit of opportunism pervading English society in 
the eighteenth century, must likewise be considered important for lit- 
erary history. The partisan acts of various writers were merely the con- 
sequences of economic laws. The economic conditions of literary pro- 
duction determined what should be their field of activity. Consequently, 
literary periodicals gave place to party journals, private patronage 
languished because of new publishing conditions, and personal opinions 
were sold out to the leader or group willing to pay. The changing status 
of professional writers has long been counted one of the most distinctive 
facts of eighteenth century literary history, but very little has been done 
to show how completely the literary craftsman was a creature of his age. 
Addison brought philosophy out of closets to become an active force in 
English life, but he and the lesser essayists brought forth their individual 
talents for use in party service for no such altruistic purpose. 

This assumption the following pages should establish. The present 
work has as its chief end to present proof of political influence in the 
literary world of Queen Anne and the first two Georges. This proof is 
offered, both as new fact in itself, and as a partial explanation of current 
literary standards. It should show why men of letters then wrote 
with reason rather than emotion, and why their demonstrations of 
feeling were restricted largely to acrid satire and personal abuse. In 
short, it is hoped that to disclose the ends sought by politician and 
writer will be to enforce the obvious truth that in determining literary 
vogues current demands must be considered of quite as much importance 
as any critical rules. 

I am under obligations to many for assistance during the course of my 
work. Attendants in the British Museum and the Public Record Office 
showed me every courtesy. George A. Aitken, Esq., whose life of Steele 
has been more useful to me than any other single work, also made highly 
profitable my stay in England by suggesting sources of material and by 
giving me the benefit of his broad knowledge of eighteenth century lit- 
erature and politics. Professor C. N. Greenough of Harvard University 



PREFACE IX 

and Professor Conyers Read of the history department of the University 
of Chicago advised me on specific points. I wish to express my thanks to 
the attendants in our own University library and to Mr. A. W. Shaw of 
Chicago for helping me to secure copies of scarce books needed from time 
to time. My greatest obligation, however, is to members of the English 
department of the University of Chicago. Professor Myra C. Reynolds, 
Professor W. D. MacClintock, and Dr. G. W. Sherburn have made many 
valuable suggestions. Professors Robert Morss Lovett and John 
Matthews Manly have been of similar service, and have also read the 
manuscript repeatedly during its preparation. To Professor Manly I 
am particularly grateful for the training gained in his classroom and for 
the encouragement given in private conference. 
Chicago. D. H. S. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter 1 The Conditions or Literary Production from 1702 to 
1710 

The new interest in politics — growth of the book trade after 1695 — the 1709 
copyright law — popularity of subscription editions — number of journals in 
1709 — Defoe's Review and Steele's Taller — effect of politics upon Steele, 
Defoe, and minor writers — government prosecutions 1 

Chapter II The Political Importance of Addison after 1712 
Addison's earlier political work — the significant events of 1712 — minor 
writers under his control — his relations with Pope — the dependence of 
Steele — party measures of Addison and Walpole 15 

Chapter III Swift's Relations with the Tory Ministry 

The new measures of Oxford and Bolingbroke — foundation of Bolingbroke's 
Examiner — prosecution of the opposition — the Tory political club — Swift as 
director of party journalism — the patronage offered to competent writers — 
rewards to Swift for his services 30 

Chapter IV Defoe and the Earl of Oxford 

Oxford's interest in party journalism — the Review and Defoe's news organi- 
zation — secret service journeys — the Mercator — intrigues against Steele and 
the Whig journals — Defoe's rewards — An Appeal to Honour and Justice 47 

Chapter V Party Journals and Journalists from 1710 to 1714 

General condition of English journalism before 1710 — the London Gazette — 
journals founded under the Tory ministry — Defoe's Review and the Examin- 
er — minor Tory journalists — Matthew Prior — opposition offered by the 
Whigs — the Whig Examiner and Medley — the Flying Post — Steele's Guar- 
dian and Englishman — minor Whig journals — the Stamp Act of 1712 — effect 
of party influence upon journals and writers 61 

Chapter VI Whig Rewards under George I 

Expectation of rewards to writers — Steele's employments — in high favor 
with the King — his Hanover Post and second Englishman — his theatrical 
difficulties — Steele and Addison on the Peerage Bill — Steele's relations with 
Walpole — Addison and Lord Halifax — Addison's petitions and state grants 
— his influence as literary advisor — Budgell and Tickell rewarded — 
Nicholas Rowe — Congreve — Ambrose Philips — Cibber, Hughes, Odell, Rid- 
path — disappointed petitioners 81 

Chapter VII Defoe and Walpole in the Service of George I 

Prosecutions before 1721 — Defoe's stratagems on the side of the ministry — 
his supervision of the press — administration journals in circulation between 
1715 and 1721 — the London Journal— Walpole's subsidy plan — the Briton — 
The Negus investigation of 1723 104 

XI 



XII CONTENTS 

Chapter VIII Political and Literary Importance of the Craftsman 
Group 

New political methods — the secret investigation of 1742 — Walpole's 
papers ami editors — Swift and Gay turned to the opposition — Savage and 

Young foundation of Bolingbroke's Craftsman — Pope's interest — Prince 
Frederick's group of disaffected politicians - minor opposition journals — 
Nicholas Amhurst — gains in freedom tor the press — Thomson and other 
dependent writers — general consequences of literary patronage 118 

Bibliography 135 

Index 147 



CHAPTER I 

THE CONDITIONS OF LITERARY PRODUCTION FROM 1702 

TO 1710 

THE NEW INTEREST IN POLITICS — GROWTH OF THE BOOK TRADE AFTER 
1695 — THE 1709 COPYRIGHT LAW — POPULARITY OF SUBSCRIPTION 
EDITIONS — NUMBER OF JOURNALS IN 1709 — DEFOE'S Review AND 

Steele's Taller — effect of politics upon Steele, defoe, and 

MINOR WRITERS — GOVERNMENT PROSECUTIONS. 

When Anne became queen of England in April 1702, party lines were 
definitely drawn on many points, and men were finding in political con- 
troversy matter for violent disagreement. Popular concern over state 
affairs had grown gradually after the conclusion of the Revolution in 
1688, an event that had given men new reason for studying the conduct 
of government. Thereafter the reign of William III had been a period 
conducive to free speech and individual thinking, and as a result well- 
organized parties began to displace in power the small groups of auto- 
cratic nobles. This was not accomplished by 1702, but the effect of 
changing conditions had appeared in all social and literary activity. 
The London clubs and coffee-houses, more and more numerous after 
1700, became centers for political discussion, and all social groups dealt 
freely in political gossip. As a result, men of letters adapted their work 
to suit current demands, so that the interest in popular government may 
be said broadly to have permeated all the cultivated groups of the city. 

With these facts in mind one cannot examine the literary products of 
the reign of Anne without watching for political allusion. It is often 
necessary to do so if one is to get a fair understanding of implied mean- 
ings. Yet the existence of partisan material proves nothing directly 
regarding the economic causes behind this production. Unless one can 
see what inducements led writers of the eighteenth century to burden 
their works with political materials, he cannot properly estimate the 
economic condition of literary production during that period. After 
1700 the intrusion of political matter into all kinds of writing was steadily 
increasing in a way not attributable to unfostered partisan zeal. Very 
obviously a writer of the time may have been on the Whig side; but why 
should his works show these partisan marks when devotion to literary 
pursuits normally excludes such utilitarian matter as political argu- 
ment? As a rule, the Queen Anne writer chose political topics because 
to do so was profitable, and the matter of profit must consequently be 
considered a powerful determinant of literary vogues. 



1 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

To be sure, politics afforded but one moans to a livelihood; other fields 
of endeavor were opening up after 1700. New conditions in the book 
and newspaper trades seemed to foreshadow hotter days for the pro- 
fessional writer, wherein he would attain true independence. In oppo- 
sition to these favoring circumstances there still existed the deadening 
force of private patronage, as well as the rapidly developing subser- 
vience to party leaders that was to bring about a new but similar bondage. 
It is. therefore, with the clash of these opposing tendencies that a stu- 
dent of literary conditions before 1710 must concern himself: he will 
usually find that political interests seem to have overcome all others in 
the minds of the men of letters. 

Though in 1702 the book trade was not flourishing, recent occurren- 
ces had led publishers to expect greater prosperity. In February, 1695, 
parliament had allowed the Licensing Act to lapse, so that henceforth 
English printers were freed from the close surveillance that for years had 
restricted their freedom. The immediate consequence was a greater 
number of newspapers, and an equally important result was a marked 
stimulation of the book trade. With the relaxation of state checks upon 
production, new publishing houses were organized, and a few strong 
hrms began projects requiring heavy investments. When the demand 
for translations led such firms as Tonson's and Lintot's to make plans 
involving large expenditures for the sake of long-deferred profits, the new- 
freedom from state restrictions as well as the safeguards of the sub- 
scription mode of printing gave them a sense of security. 

A sign of the progressive methods in use soon after 1700 is to be 
found in the projection of a work by several London publishing houses 
because it seemed too expensive for a single firm. In 1705 thirteen book- 
sellers banded together in order to bring out A Complcat History of Eng- 
land. Proposals bearing the names of all the "undertakers'" were sent 
throughout the country, and booksellers in the provincial districts were 
urged to obtain subscriptions from their customers. 1 The London dealers 
in this way spread the responsibility over an entire group oi houses, and 
then utilized their country connections as a further means to success. 
Possibility of failure was reduced to a minimum and the cause of letters 
was greatly aided. Until particular firms were strong enough to speci- 
alize upon one sort of work the London publishers found it best to pool 
their interests in this way whenever a large project was to be carried to 

1 Professor Arbor has reprinted the proposals in his Term Catalogues, etc., Ill, 459. 
In the Preface to the same volume (.p. ix) he refers to the new manner of publication 
then coming into vogue. 



CONDITIONS OF LITERARY PRODUCTION 3 

completion. This arrangement entered into in 1705 was, therefore, only 
one of many such plans to be used throughout the century. 

By such means the London firms made the city market fairly stable 
and also enlisted country dealers everywhere as their advertising agents. 
These two changes in procedure put the book trade into better condi- 
tion than it had enjoyed during former years. It was still necessary, 
however, to prevent by some means the constant pirating of expensive 
London editions by printers in Dublin and elsewhere throughout the 
kingdom. To this end in 1709 the leading houses appealed to parliament 
for better laws governing book publication, an appeal that gained weight 
through the vigorous efforts put forth in its behalf by all the interested 
publishers. The Stationer's Company fathered the new proposals, and 
every influential firm in London lent some assistance. 

The results of their campaign demonstrated how powerful the book 
publishers had become. The copyright law passed by parliament in 
1709 was distinctly advantageous to the London houses and enabled 
them to act with still greater assurance. It was provided by the terms 
of this act that after April 10, 1710, a book might be copyrighted for 
fourteen years. In case the author should be living at the expiration of 
that period, a renewal might be obtained for fourteen years more. Such 
publications as had been issued before the date mentioned, were to be 
protected for twenty-one years. The act further provided that titles 
should be registered with the Stationer's Company, and that infraction 
of this rule subjected the offender to a fine. With this definite, though 
not always effective, check upon piracy the book publishers attained a 
measure of security utterly impossible under the Licensing Act or during 
the unregulated years from 1695 until 1709. 2 

A subsidiary effect of the growth of the book publishing industry 
appeared in the new popular attitude towards all subscription editions. 
Since this change affected the possibilities of return to the writer, chiefly 
as to private patronage, its evolution formed an element in the economic 
development of the writing craft. Before 1700 the subscription method 
of publication had given both writer and publisher needed assurance for 
their more ambitious undertakings. With a long list of sponsors for a 
new work, and with a part of the selling price paid in before a volume 
was published, every one concerned felt sure of his returns. Books were 
thus brought out that never would have appeared under the ordinary 

J BirrelPs History of Copyright gives in historical sequence an account of the import- 
ant acts regarding literary property. See also Nichols' Illustrations of Literature, VIII, 
460, and Timperley's History of Printing, passim. 



4 I'MMY roil ins and ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

conditions of popular sale. As for the subscribers, they were drawn 
into such projects by a readiness to enroll their names as being patrons 
of culture, often undoubtedly when their actual interest in particular 
editions was very slight. The subscription list of a well-advertised work 
was a sort of social register wherein every English nobleman wished to see 
his name entered. Consequently, among the upper classes of society 

this method of publication was well received merely for its social value, 
but it gratified the nobility far more for another reason; the subscription 

edition afforded a cheap method of meeting their class obligation of giving 
private patronage to needy authors. Many men instead of one there- 
after patronized the English man of letters, to the general satisfaction of 
those who had before borne the burden. 

So far had the subscription edition developed before the opening of 
the eighteenth century. Private patronage was then clearly declining, 
and instances of such support became fewer during every decade 
after 1700 8 as better forms of support became available. The active 
promotion oi the subscription method through the syndicate system 
brought on the end of even the cheaper forms of private patronage pos- 
sible through such editions; for when the London syndicates advertised 
everywhere for subscribers, the class privilege immediately disappeared. 

In former days the author himself or an indulgent lord had asked the 

aristocracy for signatures: now every small book dealer in England was 
an agent of the publishing syndicate, and his appeals were directed to 
wealthy tradesmen and nobles alike, it was in such fashion that the 
Englishman of little social importance became a subscriber for the sort 
oi books sold before 1700 chiefly to the aristocracy, and many a man 

thus increased his self-esteem by subscribing for important works. 

By 1725 the nanus of nun of common birth on subscription lists are 
very nearly equal in number to those from the nobility at least this is 

true in many instances, For example, John Dart's well known work, 

published in 1730/ shows this balance between titled and untitled sub- 

i [he distressing case of Chatterton in the third quarter of tin- eighteenth century 

.in illustration of the stupid Injustice possible under the wornout methods of 

private patronage, \ pleasing contrast to Walpole's neglect of Chatterton appears 

in tin- generosity of Burke to Crabbe several years later, rtuso furnish the best illus- 

trations of how private patronage had fallen off .is a class obligation before 1800. 

'Comparison with specific publications dated earlier than 1700 would bo useless 
without tin- most complete information regarding conditions of publication. Rather 
than attempt to establish thus conclusions thai seem full\ warranted by mj pet 

;•>. I have stated onlj the tacts regarding Dart's book. From this account 
ear that in 1730 trade; presented on subscription lists. 



CONDITIONS OF LITERARY PRODUCTION 5 

scribers. The Westmonasterium, or The History of the Abbey Church of 
St. Peter's, Westminster, etc., was brought out for four hundred and forty- 
six subscribers. Two hundred and seven of these ranked as members 
of the noble orders, and two hundred and thirty-nine were of no station 
whatever. Of the forty-eight tradesmen on the list, such names and 
designations as the following wen- printed out in full: Mr. John Watts, 
Operator of Teeth; Mr. Samuel Tusnell, Mason; Mr. John Tusnell, 
Joiner; Mr. Robert More, Writing Master; and Mr. John Holland, 
Herald Painter. Quite evidently in \7M) lack of rank was no bar to 
enrollment with the aristocracy on a subscription list; on the contrary 
prosperous tradesmen were then considered tit game for the aggressive 

publisher. The same conclusion is reached upon examining other sub- 
scription lists of the same decade; one, for example, bore the names of 
thirty-three gentlemen above the rank of esquire, of one hundred seven- 
teen esquires, and of sixty-three men without rank. 1. From such evi- 
dence one can derive an explanation for the decline of private patronage 6 
and for the rapid growth of strong publishing houses under the improved 
conditions following the lapse of the Licensing Act. 

The activity in the book trade was paralleled in other branches of 
the printing industry. News journals became increasingly plentiful and 
some, founded after the press had been freed in 1695, persisted through- 
out Queen Ainu's reign. Such was the case with George Kidpath's 
Flying Post] yet it, like many others of partisan tone, drew upon 
artificial means of support. All such periodicals probably had 
secret subsidies from political leaders, and so their prosperity was due 
to something else than popular demand. 7 

Apparently the number of periodicals in circulation attracted general 
attention in 17(H). Political journals had multiplied since the foundation 
of Defoe's Review, while the immediate contemporary success of Steele's 
Taller was encouraging imitators of its style and matter. Addison 
made some amusing comments on the current journals in the Toiler 

1 Proposals for Publishing by Subscription A Curious Impression of Heads, etc. 
This list, dated 1732-33, is in the possession of Mr. A. W. Shaw of Chicago. 

'An interesting instance of the decline Of private patronage even before 1710 
appears in the Case of Klkanah Settle. Before the accession of Queen Anne, and shortly 
after, he continually solicited favor by means of dedications. How small was his 
income from this source has been shown by Dr. F. C. Brown, Klkanah Settle (Chicago, 
1910), pp. 20-44. 

' Without seeking at present to analyze individual cases, one finds several general 
accounts that prove the newspaper industry to have grown remarkably between 1700 
and 1710. The several causes for this growth will be presented later. 



6 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

for May 21, and a more significant account appeared in the General 
Postscript for October 21 of that year. In what purported to be an 
accurate list of the London newspapers, the Postscript presented the fol- 
lowing data for the use of the government. The papers then appearing 
regularly were said to be these: daily, the Daily Gourant; Monday, 
Wednesday, and Friday, the General Remark, the Female Tatter, the 
General Postscript, and the Supplement; Monday and Friday, the British 
Apollo;T\\eida,y , Thursday, and Saturday, the London Gazette, the Postman, 
the Postboy, the Flying Post, the Review, the Toiler, the Rehearsal Revived, 
the livening Post, the Whisperer, the Postboy Junior, the City Iutelli- 
gemer; Wednesday and Saturday, the Obscrvator. These totalled fifty- 
five issues each week, and in addition there were said to be many "post- 
scripts and other scandalous and seditious papers hawked in the streets." 8 
The investigator made no estimate of total circulation, but it was prob- 
ably not far from the weekly output in December 1710, when another 
government investigator put the total at 44,000 copies.' 1 

Although after 1702 party organizations constantly fostered their 
journals, the number of papers issued in 1709 was made possible only 
through the added encouragement of a popular demand for news. Even 
the London Gazette, 10 a government organ open to subsidy, in 1710 was 
supported wholly by advertising charges and public sales. Surely at the 
same time others were also winning independent support by satisfying 
genuine public needs. Thus quite clearly the English people read 
intelligently and eagerly before Addison and Steele improved public taste 
with their Tatlers and Spectators. The theory that to these two belongs 
all credit for bringing England to her books, has been used simply because 
it is conveniently explanatory of a recognized change in literary forms. 
But it is idle to credit the new periodical essay with so abrupt a creation 
of public taste, 11 when natural courses of development very obviously 
were being followed before 1709. 

* Quoted by Nichols, . . . Anecdotes . . . of James Bowyer, etc.,p.493. 

9 Cal. of Treos. ropers, 1 708-14; entry for December 2, [17101. There is possibility 
that this undated paper was written a year earlier. 

10 For full data regarding the profits from the London Gazette, see my article in the 
Nation, C I, No. 2610 (1915), 69-70. 

11 Of many such comments that might be quoted, one from Henry Morley's 1891 
edition of the Spectator will suffice. Page xx of the preface reads: "It was through 
these [the Tatlers], and the daily Spectators which succeeded them, that the people of 
England really learnt to read. The few leaves of sound reason and fancy were but 
a light tax on uncultivated powers of attention." 



CONDITIONS OF LITERARY PRODUCTION 7 

It is far more logical to look for natural causes behind the instant 
success of the Tatler — for such evidence as that given above regarding 
the sales of periodicals before the Spectator appeared. Then the con- 
temporary comments upon the popularity of Mr. Bickerstaff become 
more interesting, 12 and Gildon's assertion that the Tatler "ravished the 
Town, and almost reconciled Parties in its Praise, that were opposed in 
everything else," 13 intensifies belief in the existence of true literary taste 
before 1709. 

In general, an examination of conditions outside the sphere of politics 
proves that before 1710 the book and journal trades were encouraging 
men to independent literary endeavor. The improvement in the public 
market and the consequent decline in private patronage would eventually 
have brought freedom of action and proper income for professional 
writers had not new forces changed the natural course of events. In 
1709 non-partisan journalism was in a healthy state, and the popularity 
of the Tatler was increasing the possibilities for similar projects. As 
in the book trade, release from government surveillance had led writers 
and publishers to make new ventures. But party demands were soon 
to offset all such advantageous conditions, until at the end of Queen 
Anne's reign English journalism was to be virtually in the hands of party 
politicians to use as they saw fit. Long before Addison finally gave up 
his new series of Spectators with the issue of December 20, 1714, almost 
every other competent writer in London had preceded him in entering 
completely the service of a political party. 

* 

The hindrances to a normal development of the book and newspaper 
trades arose, as stated above, from political sources. At the outset 
Queen Anne's reign assumed its settled division into hostile camps with 
eager partisans constantly trying to outwit their opponents. It is not 
strange that they turned to newspapers and pamphlets as party instru- 
ments, or that in consequence the trend of literary activity was deter- 
mined by the increasing ardor of the contests. The traces are to be 
found in the life stories of writers then living. 

The first and most important act of the administration in this news- 
paper war was to make plans for Defoe's Review. Its editor had demon- 

12 One interesting proof appears in Lady Marow's letter to her daughter, Lady 
Kaye. On January 5, 1709-10, she wrote: "All the town are full of the Tatler, which 
I hope you have to prepare you for discourse, for no visit is made that I hear of but Mr. 
Bickerstaff is mentioned, and I am told he has done so much good, that the sharpers 
cannot increase their stocks as they did formerly. . ." Dartmouth MSS, III, 148. 

13 Art of Poetry, p. 117. 



8 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

strated during King William's reign his power in political satire, particu- 
larly through his 1700 pamphlets and his True-Born Englishman (1701). 
It was, therefore, natural that Harley in 1702 chose Defoe as the writer 
best suited to the needs of the government. Records do not show 
when the negotiations between them began, but it clearly was soon 
after the crowning of Anne. This much is proved by Godolphin's letter 
of September 26, 1703, in which he put Defoe's case wholly into Harley's 
hands. 14 After securing Defoe's release from Newgate, Harley, who " was 
shrewd enough to see the use that might be made of his peculiar talents," 1 * 
at once provided for the foundation of the Review. This journal was at 
first intended as a moderate guide to public opinion, but quite naturally 
its tone became more and more openly favorable to all administration 
measures. 

The circumstances attending this newspaper venture have two sig- 
nificant relations to the literary activities of the time. First, the estab- 
lishment of the Review marked the beginning of the serious political 
journalism for which Queen Anne's reign was distinguished. Harley's 
message to Godolphin, that it would be "of great service to have some 
discreet writer of the government side," 16 was prophetic. Thereafter 
Whig and Tory constantly advanced their causes through the aid of 
party journals. In the second place, upon beginning the Review Oefoe 
abandoned all other interests that he might more effectively perform his 
duties as secret service agent and editor. To be sure, his experience 
previous to 1704 had given admirable training for party writing, and it 
is probable that he took up his new work willingly. Yet the literary 
qualities of his later writings show how much Defoe might have accom- 
plished through purely literary endeavors. From 1702 to 1715 he con- 
formed so completely to the demands of the age as to draw his themes 
almost exclusively from current events. No one except Swift adapted 
himself more completely to contemporary demands. In doing so they 
both gave up individual freedom for the sake of uncertain political 
spoils. 

Swift's life from 1701 to 1709 may be characterized as a time of 
inactive expectation. He had first ventured into political service in 
1701 with his Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Xobles 

u For quotations from the Oxford correspondence see the detailed account of 
Defoe's work, pp. 47-61. 

16 Sir George F. Warner, "An Unpublished Political Paper of Daniel Defoe," 
Eng. Hist. Ra\, XXII (1907), p. 131. 

"Add. MSS 28,055: quoted by E. S. Roscoe, Robert Barley, Earl of Oxford, p. 72. 



CONDITIONS OF LITERARY PRODUCTION ^ 

and the Commons in Athens and Rome. Thus recommended he came to 
London looking for employment. But the publication in 1704 of his 
Tale of a Tub injured his chances for preferment in the church, and 
temporarily there was slight need for his party writing. Until 1708 the 
Whigs and Tories alternately had the upper hand, so that had his Whig 
friends been fully disposed to advance Swift they would have had only 
fair opportunity. In that year, however, his friends rose to a place 
of security that gave him reason to expect recognition. In January, 
Somers made a sincere effort to get Swift the vacant bishopric of Water- 
ford, and with his party in control the Whig leader should have found 
the way. Swift's hopes were vain: on going back to Ireland in 
Midsummer 1709, he tried without avail to urge his case upon Halifax 
by letter, and then finally gave up in disgust. Having lost all hope of 
patronage from the Whigs, he remained at Laracor in sullen silence 
waiting and hoping for a turn of affairs. His desired chance came in 
November, when stirring events in London precipitated the downfall of 
the Whigs and of the leaders who had broken their promises. 

On the fifth of that month Dr. Henry Sacheverell preached his 
famous sermon before the Lord Mayor and alderman of the city, a 
sermon that was to affect all English" politics and indirectly the fortunes 
of Swift. 17 When the Whig prosecution failed through an inability to 
prove Sacheverell guilty of treasonable utterances, Tory prospects bright- 
ened immediately, and amid the turmoil of parties Swift saw new possi- 
bilities for personal advantage. Having returned to London, he was 
ready in 1710 to accept service with either party, but he still remembered 
his ill-treatment at the hands of the Whigs. 

For eight years he had vainly looked for profitable party employment, 
devoting his best energies to the main quest. Writing but little, unlike 
Defoe, he was not preparing himself then for distinguished service in 
party journalism, and he was also ignoring any opportunities for purely 
literary production in a way that determined completely his later desires. 
Like Defoe, Swift finally made every literary or social interest sub- 
sidiary to party matters, and wrote only to satisfy a current demand. 
Both in this represent the blighting effect of political patronage 
upon men possessing the genius for creative writing, and their acts dis- 
play what causes brought in aggressive party journals in place of literary 
periodicals modelled after the Tatler and Spectator. 

17 The sermon was an attack upon politicians who favored religious toleration on 
grounds of party expediency. Godolphin was personally abused under the name of 
"Volpone." 



10 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

In similar fashion political events determined the careers of Prior and 
Addison, neither of whom attained the development in literary crafts- 
manship that would have been his under favorable conditions of produc- 
tion. Prior, though earlier a Whig, swung to the Tory side shortly 
before Queen Anne came to the throne, while Addison followed the line 
of action determined by his acceptance of a Whig pension from Halifax, 
his election to membership in the Kit-Kat Club, and his further associa- 
tion with Whig leaders after composing the Campaign in 1704. Neither 
writer was aggressively partisan before 1710; both on the contrary 
seemed content to remain inactive, with faint interest in creative compo- 
sition and with hope of state appointments whenever their respective 
parties should become all powerful. 18 

Less significant instances of perverted literary ability appear in the 
cases of John Dennis, John Howe, and John Tutchin. Howe and Tutchin 
attacked the government so assiduously through their Observator that 
attempts were made to silence them as early as 1704, when they stood 
trial before the House of Commons. Tutchin had been in political 
service before Queen Anne came to the throne. In 1703 he served the 
Earl of Nottingham as a secret informer, a fact now made certain through 
the discovery of their correspondence among the Domestic Papers™ but 
his chief service was rendered the Whigs through the columns of the 
Observator. Until his death in September 1707, as a result of a brutal 
beating at the hands of government hirelings, 20 he cooperated with Howe 
in making the Observator one of the most effective party organs of the 
period. 

From the beginning of the century John Dennis, remembered chiefly 
for his quarrels with Pope, was busily turning out poems with hopes of 
political patronage. In 1702 he vainly flattered William III through 
his poem called The Monument, but was more successful two years later 
with one celebrating Marlborough and the victory at Blenheim. One 

18 The appointments granted Addison during the years 1702-1710 are listed on 
p. 90. Prior's means of support from 1707 to 1711 was an annual pension of four hun- 
dred pounds from the Duke of Marlborough, his reward for praising the great general. 
The year 1711, when he went to Paris, marks the beginning of his official career under a 
Tory administration. 

19 Dom. Anne 1703: Bundle 2, fol. 40, a letter from Tutchin to the Earl of Not- 
tingham, February 9, 1702-03, giving information against a clerk, John Gellibrand; 
ibid., Bundle 3, fol. 42, a letter of October 23, 1703, giving information against one 
Bierly. 

20 A. Andrews, The History of British Journalism, I, 98. 



CONDITIONS OF LITERARY PRODUCTION 1 1 

authority 21 records that the Duke gave Dennis a hundred guineas for the 
personal praises in this poem, called Britannia Triumphans. Perhaps, 
too, in recognition of its bold dedication to the Queen and because of its 
Whig lines, his tragedy Liberty Asserted (1704) brought results; in June 
1705, at any rate, he became a royal waiter in the London Custom- 
House. 22 

Again, in 1707, Dennis took advantage of the English victory at 
Ramillies to compose a patriotic poem, entitled A Poem on the Battle of 
Ramillies in Five Books. His latest biographer, H. G. Paul, 23 believes 
that he also wrote many political pamphlets at this time and as late as 
1715. It seems clear that he got no government post except the place 
as waiter, though constant dedications to Halifax, Somers, Pembroke, 
and Lansdowne probably brought him small gifts from time to time. 

Such mediocre writers rank with Swift, Defoe, and Addison as exem- 
plars of the perverting power of politics. Each showed capability in 
party service that would have brought moderate success in creative 
work. But the same restrictions that affected the lives of great men 
determined completely the opportunities for employment open to less 
competent writers. Many others with small pretension to literary merit 
put whatever talents they possessed at the service of party leaders only 
because the conditions of the time made such procedure almost imperative. 
Most of these are to be found among the hack journalists, men whose 
performances scarcely assure one of their possibilities for greater things. 
But still others, more competent men, were turning to politics for ma- 
terials before 1710, and by so doing were limiting the field of their later 
activities. Dr. Arbuthnot was writing political pamphlets during the 
preliminaries to the union with Scotland. William King was also hinting 
the course of his later service by writing on the side of the high church 
party in the Sacheverell controversies, and John Philips with his Blen- 
heim was pitting against Addison's Campaign a party poem that shows 
the weak efforts possible in party service for one who had written the 
Splendid Shilling. All three were capable of more enduring work. This 
may not have been true of Thomas Yalden, known as a stout Tory; of 

21 Cibber, Lives of the Poets, IV, 217. 

22 The post was worth fifty-two pounds annually. 

23 Mr. Paul has found that Dennis held his post as waiter until 1715, when he 
sold it for £600. His last years were spent in want, in spite of the benefit performances 
and subscription editions of his works that were promoted by such friends as Atterbury, 
the Earl of Pembroke, Pope, and Robert Walpole. It is interesting to learn that Wal- 
pole gave him twenty pounds a year for several years. For all the facts about John 
Dennis I am indebted to Mr. Paul's John Dennis: His Life and Criticism, (1911). 



12 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

Edmund Smith and other mediocre writers already under Addison's 
personal influence; or of such men as Thomas Parnell, who later fell 
under the persuasion of more forceful writers acting as party agents. 
At any rate, the inclination of all these minors was to follow the trend of 
the times, and their acts reveal the same prompting from political patron- 
age as appear more obviously in the lives of Swift, Addison, or Defoe. 

* 
Finally, the new dominance of party patronage appears in the restric- 
tions gradually laid upon the press after 1702. These were but results of 
the rapid growth in number and influence of the opposition journals, and 
prove how unceasingly party leaders were subsidizing such mediums of 
publicity. 

In 1702 definite steps were taken to place restrictions upon all writers 
attacking the government. On March 26 of that year two proclamations 
appeared in London: one, the less important, had to do with the punish- 
ment to be inflicted for vice, immorality, and profanity; the other was 
directed at every form of writing that could be classed as treasonable or 
seditious. The act regarding printing specified that after that date the 
government proposed " to restrain the spreading of false news, printing 
or publishing irreligious or seditious papers and libels, reflecting on her 
majestie or the government, or upon any of her publick ministers, officers 
&c, and that the offenders should be proceeded against with the utmost 
severity of the law. ' '- ' Thereafter government prosecutions of authors, 
printers, and publishers increased steadily in number and severity until 
in 1710, under Harley and St. John, the methods of repression were 
improved through far more stringent regulations. 

Instances of such treatment as Defoe experienced in 1703 for his 
Shortest Way with Dissenters demonstrate how competently the state 
informers and prosecutors applied the terms of this new proclamation. 
Queen Anne in 1702 had called attention to the need for such restric- 
tion and within the following years arrests became increasingly frequent. 
Narcissus Luttrell recorded on May 30, 1704, that £100 reward had been 
proclaimed for proofs implicating anyone in the publication of Legion's 
Humble Address to the Lords f 5 that on October 18, 1705, Doctor Drake, 
Mr. Leslie, and Mr. Dyer were all bound over for trial on account of 
seditious articles in their respective journals; 26 and that on February 2, 
1705-06, Dr. Brown was imprisoned for writing the Country Parson's 

-* Narcissus Luttrell, Brief Historical Account, etc., V, 157. 

■'Ibid., V, 429. 

" Ibid., V, 602. 



CONDITIONS OF LITERARY PRODUCTION 13 

Advice to the Lord Keeper." During the year 1705 Edward Ward paid 
the penalty for his satires upon the Whigs and the Low-Church party 
by standing in the public pillory, 28 a form of punishment used in such 
cases with increasing frequency. Again on November 14, 1706, as the 
result of writing Hudibras Redivivus Ward suffered two exposures in the 
pillory, paid a fine of forty marks, and agreed to keep on good behavior 
for a year: Dr. Drake had paid a like penalty a week earlier for writing 
A Letter to the Right Honourable Mr. Secretary Harley, etc. By this time 
arrest and prosecution had become common, so that the recurring arrests 
of editors opposing the government were taken as matters of course. 

One comment upon the secondary motives behind these cases is worth 
noting. It reads: "Some were of Opinion that these, and other Prose- 
cutions of the like Nature, were chiefly promoted by Mr. Secretary 
Harley, not only that he might thereby appear to be entirely devoted to 
the General [Marlborough] and the Treasurer, but with a deeper design 
of rendering them obnoxious by these unpopular Indications of Sever- 
ity." 29 The same writer, Abel Boyer, commented as follows upon the 
condition of party journalism in 1706: " Several Persons, either prompted 
by their own 111 Humour, or which is more probable, acted upon and 
countenanc'd by some Great Men out of Place, having of late, in their 
publick writings, stretch'd too far the Liberty of Englishmen, and pre- 
sumed too much on the Mildness of her Majesty's Government; the 
Ministry thought fit to put a seasonable check to their licentious Pens." 30 
Both explanations for the rigorous prosecutions of the opposition writers 
and printers are entirely plausible, and by their great diversity prove 
that the motives for punishing free criticism of the administration were 
not simple. As a private matter and for the good of the party every 
leader in official position was anxious to suppress any journal hostile 
to the state ; consequently prosecutions increased in number and became 
more and more severe in proportion to the growing heat of the contest 
between Whigs and Tories. By the year 1707 political news items were 
' "Ibid., VI, 12. 

"Little more is known of Ward's political activity. As he lived until 1731, he 
may may have been the Ward pilloried in 1727. A news-letter of that year reads: 
"Yesterday Mr. Ward of Hackney stood for one hour in the pillory and the Duchess 
of Buckingham saw him stand, after which he paid his fine of £500." Hist. MSS 
Comm. Ninth Report, A pp. II, p. 401. 

29 Boyer, History of the Reign of Queen Anne, etc. (1735), p. 287. 

30 Boyer, History of the Reign of Queen Anne, etc. (1735), p. 286. Throughout 
the succeeding pages Boyer noted the punishments meted out to various offending 
writers and printers. 



14 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

scattered everywhere throughout England, 31 and such prosecutions as 
had become common during the controversies over the Scottish Union 
were multiplied during the following years. 

Such attack and counter-attack could have arisen only after financial 
encouragement had influenced the writers. The opposition and minis- 
terial presses were being subsidized constantly that public opinion might 
be led to desired beliefs; incidentally the writers themselves were being 
persuaded to adopt or profess the political opinions tending to increase 
their opportunities for employment. By 1710 political patronage had 
a strong economic influence upon literary production, with the result that 
capable writers were being rapidly drawn into party service. Other 
forms of literary support could not meet the competition offered by 
political organizations. Consequently private patronage lessened, the 
book industry could not develop along lines that shortly before seemed 
promising, and literary periodicals speedily gave place to aggressive party 
journals. 

31 In that year the editor of the Muses Mercury announced the appearance of his 
journal with the following statement regarding contributed articles: "We Except 
against all Political or Personal Scandal, what is Injurious to good Sense or good Man- 
ners, Immoral or Profane; All Party Libels and Lampoons; and those who cannot 
speak well of Publick or Private Persons, must make use of some other Means to 
Introduce their Spleen into the World." 



CHAPTER II 
THE POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ADDISON AFTER 1712 

addison's earlier political work — the significant events of 1712 — 
minor writers under his control — his relations with pope — 
the dependence of steele — party measures of addison and 

WALPOLE. 

The importance of Steele and Addison in the life of Queen Anne's 
reign justifies the attention paid them by all students of eighteenth 
century conditions. Both were concerned with the most characteristic 
literary product of their day — the periodical essay, and both became 
deeply involved in politics. As they were thus typical of their age and 
influential in its affairs, they have been discussed familiarly by literary 
and political historians from their own time to the present. The life 
story of Steele in particular has had due presentation in a critical bio- 
graphical study 1 which clearly reveals the variety and importance of his 
political employments. But in the case of Addison less has been done; 
biographers and less responsible critics have passed over his political 
influence upon his contemporaries, his standing with the Whig politicians 
of his day, and the general results of his interest in politics. It is in these 
respects that Addison's life had a significance beyond Steele's. His per- 
sonal influence was far greater and the consequences of his party work 
more important for himself and for others. 

In order to discover the value of Addison's party activity it is not 
necessary to review all the familiar events of his life story; more can be 
learned by considering a few of the best-known facts in connection with 
contemporary political events. Addison has usually been looked upon 
as an unwilling and incompetent office-holder, whose appointments came 
through literary reputation rather than through demonstrated ability 
in statecraft. It would be more proper to assert that he submitted to 
the needs of party politics all his personal and literary powers. He was 
always a competent, though not brilliant, official and gave a variety of 
service not recorded in written history. His unusual political services 
were made possible by his literary reputation, but it is equally true that 
public employments effectually destroyed his natural devotion to pure 
literature. 

1 Little of importance has been added to Mr. George A. Aitken's Life of Richard 
Steele, 2 vols., 1889. 



16 PARTV P01 I TICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

It is very evident that his aggressive party work during Oxford's 
ministry was an outgrowth from earlier causes. Before 1710 he was not 
active politically, but contented himself with passive allegiance to the 
Whig party. From the time of his first congratulatory verses to King 
William in 1695 he was recognized as of that political group, and he never 
broke from his allegiance. 

Considered as a whole, Addison's life from 1695 to 1710 seems to have 
been a time of waiting upon the wishes of Whig leaders; while doing 
literary work, he was in readiness to serve the party. This he 
demonstrated by constantly working to keep in favor. His Poem to His 
Majesty (1695) opened with verses to Lord Somers, the lord chancellor. 
Two years later, following the peace of Ryswick, he addressed a similar 
Latin poem to the King, and this he presented to Montagu, then first 
commissioner of the Treasury. The discreet dedications were recog- 
nized in 16W by the grant of a three hundred pound pension, and from 
then on he had the continual good will of the two Whig leaders. Though 
the pension money was paid irregularly and the grant revoked at the 
accession of Anne, the affair proved Addison's standing. In 1702, 
having been elected to membership in the Kit-Kat Club, he became 
thoroughly a Whig. Two years later he celebrated Marlborough's 
victory at Blenheim in his Campaign, and was made a Commissioner of 
Appeal in Excise. Very shortly after the publication of this poem, 
in at least one production he made good return for the patronage of 
leading Whigs; his pamphlet, The Present State of the War, and the Xeces- 
sity of an Augmentation, which appeared anonymously in November, 
1707, revealed more intense party interest than any of his other work 
preceding the first issues of the TT7//g Examiner. 

After such active partisanship Addison was the logical choice as editor 
of the new journal founded in 1710 to oppose the Tory Examiner. He 
proved himself a sound Whig by championing every cause of his party. 
Perhaps his most distinctively partisan article during his brief term as 
editor was in defence of verses by Dr. Garth. That loyal Whig had 
written a poem remarkable chiefly for unrestrained praise of Godolphin, 
ami upon its publication the Examiner had commented caustically 
upon its "strong unlabour'd impotence of thought."- Addison's prompt 
rejoinder in the Whig Examiner for September 14, 1710 was a partisan 
piece on a level with the Tory review that inspired it, and both represent 
the manner in which a great ileal of so-called "literary criticism" was 
written during succeeding years. While men of letters continued to be 

J Issue for September 7, 1710. See Biog. Brit. (1750), III. 2,133. 



POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ADDISON 17 

active partisans, literary criticism languished, for their minds were too 
frequently perverted by party prejudice for the formation of impartial 
opinions. Addison in this limitation suffered with the other men of his 
day. 

Though he made such open display of party zeal while editor of the 
Whig Examiner, Addison was not a real factor in Whig affairs until after 
1712. In that year he became a politician instead of a man of letters, 
a change that he made known to all through two important acts — by 
dropping the Spectator and by aiding Daniel Button to establish a Whig 
coffee-house. The chief consequence of these evident political steps 
was an open break with his old associates and literary acquaintances, so 
that thereafter party allegiance became his new test for friendship and 
support. As a secondary result a similar demonstration of political 
devotion became necessary for the average writers wishing during the 
next years to win favors from any leading literary man or politician in 
London. With the need for a choice of party, English men of letters 
encountered a corresponding need for accurate information on political 
topics, so that their interests and ambitions both underwent a gradual 
change. As for Addison personally, upon the opening of Button's 
Coffee House he became a practical man of affairs instead of an amusing, 
instructive essayist, and thereafter constantly subordinated lighter 
interests to public requirements. His chances for state office had dis- 
appeared at the fall of the party in 1709; consequently, in 1712, being 
dependent upon men out of power, he willingly entered into their plans 
to reestablish Whig control. 

It is important to recognize the consequences of Addison's acts in 
order to see their relation to his later work. Like Swift among Tory 
writers, he stood in 1712 as advisor to the minor writers of his party, 
and consequently became a mediary between them and the party leaders. 
In this service he undoubtedly assisted many friends without regard 
simply to practical ends; but with both men it appears that personal 
friendship was one of the best mediums for getting others into party 
service. In addition to the power of friendship, Addison utilized the 
patronage obtainable from the Whig nobility and the prospect of state 
employment for the faithful when the Whigs should regain control of 
the government. 

Specific instances of his activity are numerous enough to prove these 
assertions. In 1709 his cousin, Eustace Budgell, went with him to Ire- 
land and later on lived with him in London. Both experiences were 
effectual bonds, as was their relationship, so that Budgell contentedly 



18 TARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

waited for the Whig patronage to bo distributed at the accession of George 
1. I lis work on the Spectator ranks with that of other occasional con- 
tributors like Colonel Brett, Henry Carey, and Thomas Tickell; all lent 
aid during their years of inaction as members of Addison's " little senate." 
The relations oi Tickell and the essayist illustrate well the effect of politi- 
cal attachment upon literary production. Having praised Addison's 
opera Rosamond in his poem of ( heford (1707), Tickell won favor that made 
his addition to the Whig group a certainty. In 1712, however, he wrote 
his Poem to /its Excellency the Lord Privy Seal on the Prospect of Peace, 
a direct contradiction of his patron's political creed. Addison dis- 
creetly ignored the Tory materials in the poem and praised it in the 
Spectator as a "noble performance." 5 Having thus kept Tickell in the 
Whig group, he was able later to make use of him in his quarrel with 
Pope and finally to get him into state employment under a Whig admin- 
istration. 

Ambrose Philips, best known of the minor writers for the Spectator, 
had been under Addison's influence before the paper was founded. As 
early as April 25, 1710, his patron had tried to obtain for him a diplomatic 
post. 1 and thus had brought the pastoral poet into intimate relations 
with prominent Whigs. As a result he held Philips against Swift's 
proffered patronage, a success that led the literary advisor for thegovern- 
ment to exclaim angrily that he "would have helped him [Philips] had 
he not run party mad." 8 The acts of Addison and Swift's comment 
attest the pressure put upon Philips by both political groups. 
Another writer to recognize the need for courting favor from the Whig 
literary advisor was the poet Young, who looked to Addison for recom- 
mendation. Both of these writers saw what were the channels to 
patronage. Tickell chose the Whig side in spite of Tory persuasions; 
Young secretly played for Tory favor, but openly professed fidelity to 
the party of Addison and his friend Tickell. 

While thus influencing men of definite literary ability and reputation, 
Addison also approached men of lesser merit on purely practical grounds. 
For instance, he proposed to Edmund Smith, a mediocre writer, that 
he should write a Whig history of the Revolution. It was common 
enough during the reign of Anne to bring out "party histories" under 
the guise of unbiased accounts, and this work was to have been one for 
the glory of the Whig party. The inducement offered was three hundred 

»Na 523. 

♦Letter of Addison to Philips: in Aikin's Life, II, 14. 

1 Journal to Stella, December 27, 1713. 



POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ADDISON 19 

pounds — a large sum for the work, except for the fact that it was to have 
an immediate political value. As it happened, the book was never 
written, but only because Smith's indolence was too great. Yet the 
record of the negotiations is enough to prove what was Addison's disposi- 
tion in the affair, and to show how he was used by his party. He could 
not have made such a proposal unless wealthy Whigs had given him, as 
their agent, the necessary funds. 

A more significant instance of his purposeful work for the party is to 
be found in his dealings with Pope between 1712 and 1714. At the time 
when Addison instituted a Whig club at Button's in opposition to the 
Tory group at Will's, Pope tried to remain neutral. He had close 
friends on both sides and hoped to keep them. Mr. Courthope has 
summarized the facts regarding Pope's situation in the perplexing days 
thereafter with the statement, "His religion prevented him from hoping 
for any state employment; he had suffered from the bigotry of religious 
party spirit in consequence of his Essay on Criticism; his taste was repug- 
nant to politics, and his moralizing temper made him inclined to take up 
a temporizing position." 6 To be sure, these considerations checked 
Pope from entering party controversies, but more concrete inducements 
also had their effect. It was in connection with one of these practical 
appeals that Addison proved himself an important factor in the Whig 
plans for publicity. 

The case can be understood properly with some knowledge of Pope's 
situation in 1712. He was not identified completely with a political 
party, as were almost all of his old associates; he still held an anomalous 
position politically, and undoubtedly quite intentionally. During the 
preceding years events had occurred that opened his eyes to the cleavage 
that London literary groups were undergoing through the force of politics, 
and he was disposed to maintain an attitude of neutrality in order to 
keep alive his literary friendships. The success of his work depended 
on it. One proof of this friendly disposition appeared in his plans to 
help Steele with the Guardian. The paper did not begin until the next 
spring, but Pope was planning his contributions as early as November 
17 12. 7 Then he had no fears over party matters. Soon, however, he 
showed in his letters to Caryll that Tory likings were drawing him towards 
partisanship, and that because of natural inclinations he might easily 
be led to take an active part. It is not sufficient explanation for this 
inclination of Pope's to count his Tory interest due to the party attach- 

6 Pope, Works, V, 80. 

7 Letter to Caryll, November 19, 1712. Works, VI, 167. 



20 P \K IV POLITICS AND ENG3 1SH JOURNALISM 

menl of bis correspondent, for everything in His life hitherto turned him 
towards that side. At heart a Tory, Pope was in 1712 still on good 
terms with the writers tor the opposition. 

Onlv when Windsor Forest was published in March 1713 can he be 

said to have taken an open stand for either political group. Then, 
under his own name. Tope made public a poem that had seventy lines in 
praise of the Tory negotiations with France. These had been added 
through the suggestion of Lord Lansdowne to a poem that originally was 
not planned with any party intention. Immediately its author was 
looked upon as another active writer on the Tory side; the one whose 
silence on party matters had seemed certain, had spoken out definitely 
for the administration. 

Whatever may have been Tope's surprise at the consequences, his 
old friends were quick to show their appreciation of the act. Swift 
expressed his joy in his Journal for March l ), 1713, and at once made 
haste to fraternize with the new Tory poet. He introduced Pope to all 
the leading politicians on the government side and sought to make him a 
sharer in their plans. Though the only permanent result was an enduring 
personal friendship between the two. under other circumstances Swift 
might easily have had his desire. As it happened, he himself three 
months after these events left for Ireland, Oxford and Bolingbroke 
fell to Loggerheads over private jealousies, and so Pope was left free from 
outside pressure to choose his own course of action. His gain privately 
was to come from the friendship of Swift, day, Arbuthnot. and Boling- 
broke. s As for the Tory leaders, they were distracted to matters more 
pressing than the encouragement oi a poet. They none the less realized 
his value. 

•When Swift returned to England in September 17L>. he began a correspondence 
with Pope. We know from Tope's reply to a letter from his friend, that Swift had 
urged him to change his religion. The reply, dated December 8, 1713, (Works, VII, 

3) "as bantering in tone but unquestionably of serious purpose. For instance, the 
following lines show Pope's true position: " 1 am afraid there is no being at once a good 
poet and a good Christian, and 1 am very much straitened between the two, while the 
Whigs seem willing to contribute as much to continue me the one. as you would to 
make me the other. Hut. if you can move every man in the government who has 
e ten thousand pounds a year, to subscribe as much as yourself. I shall become a 
convert, as most men do. when the Lord turns it to my interest." This letter conies 
from Lord Orrery's Remarks OH Sir:/:, not from Pope's edition of his own correspond- 
ence. With no doubt as to its authenticity, one is disposed to admit that Swift was 
trying to remove a religious disability preparatory to recommending Pope to the 
ministrv. 



POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ADDISON 21 

Though the proofs of Addison's concern in the matter arc less obvious, 
it is very clear that he had political reasons for his attitude towards Pope. 
He knew, to be sure, the influence drawing the poet towards the Tories, 
among them being the fact that a recognized Catholic could scarcely 
find tolerance and favor from a pari; sworn to secure a Protestant suc- 
cession. In addition he saw how deftly Swift was drawing Pope into the 
companionship of the Tory lords. With such reflections as these Addison 
assumed Windsor Forest to be only a token of what could be expected 
presently in the way of outspoken Tory writings. 

It would not, therefore, have been odd had Addison considered the 
matter settled: instead he interfered. At least it might be possible, he 
thought, to deprive the Tories of such assistance as Pope could render, 
even though it could newer be obtained for the Whigs. His need, there- 
fore, was to find an alternative course more attractive than that offered 
by the Tory politicians, and from past experiences he had learned what 
arguments would best serve his purpose. 

The chief desires in Pope's heart were to be recognized as England's 
greatest living poet and to live independent of the degrading patronage 
granted by the nobility to writers of the preceding reign. Though 
serving the Tory party would not necessarily prevent a realization of 
these worth}- ambitions, Addison knew that Pope might fear such a 
result. In a letter dated November 2, 1713, he wrote in commendation 
of the projected translation of Homer, and added significantly: "You 
gave me leave once to take the liberty of a friend, in advising you not 
to content yourself with one half of the nation for your admirers, when 
you might command them all. If I might take the liberty to repeat it, 
I would on this occasion. I think you are very happy that you are out 
of this fray [i. e., political controversy] and I hope all your undertakings 
will turn to the better account for it.'" J Addison may have had in mind 
the time, noted by Spence, when he wrote to Pope saying, "You who will 
deserve the praise of the whole nation, should never content yourself 
with half of it." 10 Whatever may have been the date of the original 
suggestion, evidently it gave weight to the later plea, made when Addison 
was most solicitous that Pope should refuse to aid the Tories. 

If one is opposed to assuming so much when the evidence has been 
taken from Pope's edited correspondence, he may turn elsewhere for 
proof. Joseph Warton wrote as follows regarding the attitude of Addi- 
son towards Pope after the publication of Windsor Forest: "A person of 

9 Pope, Works, VI, 402. 

10 Singer's (1820) edition of the Anecdotes, p. 9. 



22 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

no small rank has informed me, that Mr. Addison was inexpressibly 
chagrined at this noble conclusion of Windsor-Forest, both as a politician 
and as a poet. As a politician, because it so highly celebrated that 
treaty of peace which he deemed so pernicious to the liberties of Europe; 
and as a poet, because he was deeply conscious that his own Campaign, 
that gazette in rhyme, contained no strokes of such genuine and sublime 
poetry." 11 All the circumstances make Warton's anecdote seem reason- 
able. First, in 1713 Addison was so deeply engrossed in politics that he 
quite naturally would have disliked Pope's opposition. Freed from the 
restraint upon him while writing Spectators, he was then too much 
alive to the political situation to ignore Pope's appearance on the side 
of the ministry. Moreover, the method taken to divert Pope from 
political interests is in itself quite convincing against Addison. Very 
obviously here is an instance of a writer stopped in his party writing 
through the use of clever diplomacy. Under the guise of friendship, 
Addison accomplished his purpose. 12 For many years after, Popecare- 

11 "Essay on the Genius of Pope," (1806 ed.) I, 29. 

12 Mr. Courthope (V, 84) does not believe Warton's anecdote to be authentic. 
Because Addison had shown a non-partisan attitude in praising Tickell's Peace, another 
Tory poem on the Peace of Utrecht, he considers Addison to have been non-partisan 
in his literary judgments. He also offers the opinion that Addison, if angered by 
Windsor Forest, would not have let stand Pope's Prologue to Calo, which was acted 
two months after the publication of the Tory poem. 

In the first place, Mr. Courthope cannot assume that the anecdote "rests on no 
foundation" simply because it seems contradictory to Addison's open praise of a simi- 
lar political poem; for Addison's relations with Tickell are not comparable to his 
relations with Pope. Tickell had been a favorite of his ever since writing the compli- 
mentary verses on Rosamond, and had been under Addison's protection during all his 
years in London. Later he was to get state appointments through the help of his 
patron and finally to edit his works. A question in point — though not one easy of 
solution — would be, why Tickell, a Whig partisan, wrote his Tory poem on The Pros- 
pect of Peace. It is not extraordinary that Addison should have had the tact to praise 
his friend's poem, and a conclusion of some plausibility might be that his praise held 
Tickell among the Whigs at a time when Tory policies seemed most successful. As to 
Pope's part in the production of Cato, Addison may simply have used Pope's Prologue 
as a recommendation to favor from the most prominent poet of the day. The literary 
relationship of the two men may be held to justify such a conclusion. As a political 
expedient, however, the use of the Prologue can be explained in the same way as 
Addison's letter of Nov. 2, 1713; Addison used the best means available to restrain 
Pope from Tory allegiance — in one case by reading his Prologue into a Whig play, and 
later, by advising him to keep free from party. It seems entirely probable that both 
of Addison's acts were purposeful, and no other interpretation suits the spirit of his 
letter to Pope. Warton's anecdote confirms this conclusion. 



POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ADDISON 23 

fully avoided party attachments and soon prided himself on his inde- 
pendence. 13 

The most complete statement of his new position in regard to party 
is to be found in a letter written to Caryll on May 1, 1714, which indicates 
how definitely he had then determined his line of conduct. It reads: 
" I have . . . encountered much malignity on the score of religion, 
some calling me a papist and a tory, the latter because the heads of the 
party have been distinguishingly favourable to me: but why the former 
I cannot imagine, but that Mr. Caryll and Mr. E. Blount have laboured 
to serve me. Others have styled me a whig, because I have been hon- 
oured with Mr. Addison's good word and Mr. Jervas' good deed, and of 
late with my Lord Halifax's patronage. How much more natural a 
conclusion would it be to any good-natured man to think a person who 
has been favoured by all sides has been inoffensive to all. This miserable 
age is so sunk between animosities of party and those of religion, that I 
begin to fear most men have politics enough to make the best scheme of 
government a bad one, through their extremity of violence, and faith 
enough to hinder their salvation. I hope, for my own part, never to 
have more of either than is consistent with justice and charity. . . 
I am ambitious of nothing but the good opinion of all good men on both 
sides." 14 Sincerity seems more evident in this letter than is usual in 
Pope's correspondence. Again, on August 16, 1714, following the death 
of Queen Anne, he wrote to Caryll: "I thank God that, as for myself, 
I am below all the accidents of state changes by my circumstances, and 
above them by my philosophy." 1 "' 

After this statement of contempt for party he became involved as 
deeply in his Homer as even Addison could have wished. Not until 
he freed himself finally in 1725 from the long task on the Iliad and 
Odyssey was he ready to reassert his political opinions. In the instances 
when Pope actually aided either Whigs or Tories, he apparently expected 
no rewards for his services, and undoubtedly he kept to his resolution 
to live wholly upon public support. 

As for Addison's other forms of assistance to the Whig cause, proof 
of his active partisanship appears in a pamphlet issued during the time 
of his chicanery with Pope. In the summer of 1713 he brought out 
anonymously The late Tryal and Conviction of Count Tariff, in which he 
made a strong attack upon Defoe, who was then defending the Tory 

13 See his comment upon Steele's expulsion from the House, Works, VI, 196. 

14 Works, VI, 208. 
16 Works, VI, 217. 



24 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

trade policy in his journal Mercator, and who in the same year had 
defended the Ton- trade policy in his Memoirs of Count Tariff. In his 
invective against the personified foe of free trade, Addison warmly assailed 
the Mercator and the Examiner for defending Count Tariff, as follows: 
. . . "When the Count had finished his speech, he desired leave to 
call in his vvil : granted: when immediately there came 

to the bar a man with a hat drawn over his eyes in such a manner that 
it was impossible to see his face. He spoke in the spirit, nay in the very 
language of the Count, I his arguments, and confirmed his asser- 

tions. Being asked his name; he s; world called him Mercator: 

but as for his true name, his age, his lineage, his place of abode, they 
were particulars, which for certain reasons lie was obliged to conceal. 
. . . There appeared another witness in favour of the Count, who 
spoke with so much violence and warmth, that the Court began to listen 
to him very attentively; till upon hearing his name they found he was a 
notorious Knight of the post, being kept in pay to give his testimony on 
all O' ons where it was wanted. This was the Examiner: a person 
who had abused almost every man ii id, that deserved well of his 

country. . . the witness overheard the word Pillory repeated twice 
or thrice, slunk away privately, and hid himself among the people. 

excerpt from an unfamiliar essay shows a controversial spirit 
not usually associated with Addison's name. Its open hostility to the 
Tory journalists proves that he personally entered the party contro- 
versies of the day with hopes of confuting Defoe and the retaine of 
Swift. Mis party activities between 1710 and 1714, consequently, 
com, att ck upon Tory writers as well as non-committal 

of his literary ;> e end. Great 

imp;' o be attached to the trickery used repeatedly in 

his dea with Pope. Moreover, bis readiness in 17LS to write a 

controversial party pamph] ; out the conviction that he was 

thin] ilitical conditions when staging Cato during the same year. 

Whether or not he had begun the play years before while residing in 
Fra ; ' nificanl ; I he fact is that his only play was used as apolitical 

document in the spring of 1713 when party rage was at its height. 17 
He had unquestionably a clear intention in portraying Cato's last stand 

"Works (1721 ed.), IV, 326-7. 

"The first production was at Drury Lane Theater on April 14. 1713, not on 
April 13, as .Mr. Courthope implies in his Addison, p. 1 19. Mr. Gosse makes the same 
error in his history of the period. 



POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ADDISON 25 

against the usurpation of state liberties by Caesar, for contemporary- 
events seemed to justify a Whig in viewing Oxford's acts as those of a 
similar tyrant. It is not significant of anything relative to Addison's 
purpose, that the lories tried to turn a Whig play to their own uses; 
that Bolingbroke openly gave Booth, the actor, a purse of fifty pounds as 
a reward for his services to the government; or that Tory praises dimin- 
ished remarkably the effect desired by the author. In 1713 Addison's 
contemporaries knew how resolutely he was attached to Whig principles, 
and his Cato was accepted as a Whig play in spite of Tory efforts to sub- 
vert his intention. 13 

Being so fully a sharer in Whig plans, Addison thus showed it occa- 
sionally in his writings before the death of Queen Anne. Though his 
least productive period for political composition, the years 1710-1714 
were marked by these few noteworthy examples of such work. His more 
important activities were in restraining others from entering Tory ser- 
vice through the means of Button's Coffee House and its associations, 
or through such unobtrusive acts as those brought out concerning his 
dealings with Pope. 

* 

Two interesting problems arise in the study of Addison's political 
activity between 1710 and 1714; one, the question of what influence 
he had over Steele, and the other as to his relations with the Whig 
leaders. 

On the first point the opinion has prevailed that Addison repressed 
Steele's political enthusiasms while the Spectator was in existence. The 
satisfaction and profit derived from a Tory office also kept him in check, 
but to Addison has been accorded credit for keeping the Spectator free 
from violently partisan essays. Correspondence for these years clearly 
reveals Steele's submission to Addison in important matters. For 
example, on October 6, 1713, John Hughes wrote begging Addison to 
check his friend's plan to enter more deeply into politics with his new 
paper, the Englishman.™ The obvious conclusion is that Steele's sub- 
servience to Addison was well known to their close friends, and that it 

18 In commenting upon Bolingbroke's gift to Booth, one writer observed: "Un- 
doubtedly he would have rewarded it much nobler in the person of Mr. Addison had 
it not been universally known that the Gentleman had made a Present of that Copy 
to the Players, and that his Principles would not surfer him to accept of any place 
under that Ministry." Authentic Memoirs of the Conduct and Adventures of Henry 
St. John, etc. [n. d.], p. 29. 

19 Addison, Works (1768 ed.), V, 411. 



26 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

was noticed to a certain degree by others. Since Addison, in his letter 
of October 12, assured Hughes that any advice he might then give Steele 
would have no weight, 20 it seems that he realized the waning of his old 
influence. By that time more powerful Whigs were directing Steele's 
acts, and party work was fast becoming his chief concern. Though 
personally very effective as a journalist and as a parliamentary speaker, 
Steele could never dominate other writers in the fashion of his friend. 

In all his service he was rather a ready worker under guidance. He 
permitted his friends to make intelligent use of his talents. The cir- 
cumstances of his election to parliament for Stockbridge show their 
deliberate plan to raise Steele to a place of usefulness to the party. No 
one doubts that his advisors used funds improperly during the election; 
indeed, on March 3, 1714, James, Earl of Barrymore, and Sir Richard 
Vernon entered a petition for his expulsion on that ground. Had not 
the charges for seditious libel seemed more plausible ground for prose- 
cution in an age of general bribery, this plea would have been pushed 
to a conclusion. Whig and Tory leaders alike recognized what ends 
their opponents were seeking, and meanwhile Steele was only a pawn in 
the hands of greater men. 

Some contemporary comments prove this to have been the situation. 
One writer boldly asserted that what "seduced" Steele more than any 
interest in Whig measures was getting "a Pension from the Party, 
double the Income of the Stamp Office at Present, and in Hand, for 
Speaking in the House." 21 The Examiner also commented characteris- 
tically: "Whether the Author of the Crisis and Englishman, by laying 
down the Pen, and trusting altogether to the Use of his Mouth, will be 
best able to do his Party Service, may justly be made a Question, till 
he can give other Proofs of his Abilities, than have yet been communi- 
cated to the Publick. I readily believe that the Number of his Prompters 
is pretty near equal to that of his Correspondents, but there is a sensible 
difference in their Weight." 22 These opinions regarding Steele's motives 
in entering parliament hint openly that he was under the guidance of 
Whig leaders, not at all a free agent. 

The completeness of his dependence upon others and also Addison's 
relations with the Whig politicians were shown by the events of Steele's 
trial and expulsion from the House of Commons. Defoe had instigated 

20 Works (1768 ed.), V, 412. 

21 The Character of Sir Richard Steele, etc. (1713), p. 5. 
2i Examiner V, No. 32: March 8-12, 1713. 



POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ADDISON 27 

the proceedings against him, 23 and at Oxford's move to push matters to a 
conclusion Steele's Whig friends rallied to his support. In this critical 
situation his most powerful protector was Robert Walpole. This 
influential Whig, once considered by Oxford as worth half his party, was 
in 1714 the most significant factor in English politics. He was the ack- 
nowledged leader of the opposition, and the Tories greatly feared him. 
When the contest over Steele's seat arose, therefore, it was but natural 
for Walpole to assume the responsibility of defending the party spokes- 
man. 

His speech in Steele's behalf was a powerful plea for an enlarged free- 
dom of the press and for unrestrained freedom of speech. Long tenure 
of public office had shown him the efficacy of such government journals 
as Defoe's Review and the Examiner; now that the Whigs, completely 
out of power, sorely needed the aid of Steele as a speaker and pamphleteer, 
Walpole exerted every effort in his behalf. General Stanhope was also 
aggressive; Lord Hinchinbroke and Lord Finch both spoke for him, and 
Addison was posted in readiness to advise his old friend. But of them 
all, Walpole was by far the most vigorous in his pleading, and even went 
so far as to prepare much of the three-hour speech delivered by Steele 
in person. 24 

Although the Whig lords failed to break down the Tory prosecution, 
the trial brought to light definite facts of importance concerning party 
writing on the government side: it also proved Walpole a sedulous 
investigator into the practices of the administration. In his speech for 
Steele he revealed some startling facts. He charged the Tory leader 
with having prepared the way for a return of the Pretender by conducting 
a propaganda through all sorts of publications. A corrupt post-office 
system, it was asserted, furnished the means of distribution for documents 
presenting false information concerning conditions, all to the end that 
Tory rule might be continued after Queen Anne's death. Walpole's 
specific charge was based upon the publication of a party history, called 
The Hereditary Right of the Crown of England asserted. This work, 

23 On February 19, 1713-14 Defoe wrote to Oxford: ". . . The new champion 
of the party, Mr. Steele, is now to try a experiment upon the Ministry, and shall 
set up to make speeches in the House and print them, that the malice of the party may 
be gratified and the Ministry be bullied in as public a manner as possible. If, my lord, 
the virulent writings of this man may not be voted seditious none ever may, and if 
thereupon he may be expelled it would discourage the party and break all their new 
measures." Portland MSS, V, 384. 

24 Coxe, Walpole, etc. (1798), I, 45. 



28 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

he charged, had been written after Oxford had employed a competent 
student to search the state files for documents unfavorable to the Hano- 
verian succession. Thus, Walpole said, while ostensibly supporting 
Queen Anne, Oxford was actually dispersing statements intended to pre- 
vent a Protestant succession. In support of this charge the Whig leader 
offered to bring evidence that a Treasury order for twelve or fourteen 
pounds had been issued to the investigator for finding arguments for 
his case in the will of Henry VIII. The Tory leaders, however, were 
loathe to discuss the matter and let Walpole's charge pass uncontested. 
This proved instance of government subsidy for a party history 
strengthens belief in the truth of such statements as the following, written 
by the editor of the Examiner: "By Party Histories I do not understand 
the Accounts of any one Party or Faction; for those may be very True 
and Useful: But I mean such Histories as are written for the Sake of a 
Partv, and to promote its declining Interests: Wherein there is a mani- 
fest Byass upon the Author, who must keep close, not to the Truth, but 
Design; and so Correct, Model, Conceal, Alter, and temporize his Facts 
and Reflections, that they may effectually serve his Friends, instead of 
instructing his Readers. All Works of this kind are reserv'd for a Crisis, 
and come abroad in some favourable Juncture. . ," 25 Clearly both 
parties at the end of Queen Anne's reign were freely resorting to such 
means of presenting false reports of historic events. Walpole's charge 
against Oxford and Addison's offer to "Rag" Smith are definite proofs 
that both parties used that method. Furthermore, on good authority 
it may be asserted that the government made improper use of its power 
by compelling army men to distribute broadcast the copies of these 
party histories, and that Secretary Bromley supplied the funds for 
advertising the works in the London Gazette?* 

Knowing what the government leaders were doing regarding the suc- 
cession, Walpole naturally took vigorous steps to keep Steele in the 
House. It was undoubtedly he who led Steele to try new ways of helping 
the Whigs against the Tories, and in cooperation with Addison he devised 
checks upon the work of Swift, Bolingbroke, Oxford, and Defoe. We 
know from outside information that Walpole was not at work simply 
through liking for Steele; he was working for the party and for his own 
political career. The proof is to be found in an unpublished letter among 
the Domestic Papers, written on January 30, 1723, by Stephen Whately. 
In addressing Walpole, the writer asked for assistance in a case then 

26 V, No. 1: November 27-30, 1713. 

28 Boyer, Reign of Anne, etc., p. 676. 



POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ADDISON 29 

pending against him in court. As ground for the request, he had this to 
say of his previous relations with the Whig leader during the reign of 
Anne: "In the Close of the Late Reign, your Memorialist had the 
Happiness of being Indulged with Access to your Honour, and was 
employ'd in the private Printing and Dispersing of several Papers wrote 
by the Best Pens against the Enemies of the Protestant Succession, 
particularly the Letter to the West Country Clothier, The Short History 
of the Parliament, and others with which I will not now take up your 
Time; only I would beg Leave to acquaint your Hon r 

That when the Author of the Flying Post George Ridpath was forced 
to go beyond Sea for Animadverting on the then Administration, your 
Memorialist being desired to stand in the Gap, carry'd on the said Paper 
with the same Spirit to ye Demise of the Queen, in spite of all Difficul- 
ties and Dangers, and has ever since continued it with the same Zeal, 
by combating all Libellers that have hitherto taken the Field against 
the present Government; from the Examiner down to Mist's Journal 
and the Free Briton. . ." 27 

The significance of Whately's letter lies in its positive proof of Wal- 
pole's active interest in party journalism before 1714 as well as later. 
Above all others he has hitherto been considered hostile to every sort of 
literary production and to the whole writing profession, simply because 
some explanation was needed to justify the unhappy state of English 
letters during the reign of George I. As a result of this need, the foreign 
king and his chief advisor have been condemned for supposedly ignoring 
men who were trying to support themselves by writing. Now it is cer- 
tain that Walpole was working in complete agreement with Addison 
during the last years of Queen Anne's reign. The events of Steele's 
trial and Whately's letter show that they were mutually interested in 
promoting the Whig propaganda. In view of their common interest in 
party journalism, in party histories, and in the patronage of minor Whig 
writers, it is proper to assume them working together after 1712. All 
the available evidence supports such a conclusion. 
27 5. P. Dom. Geo. I. Vol. 44, fol. 229. 



CHAPTER III 
SWIFT'S RELATIONS WITH THE TORY MINISTRY 

THE NEW MEASURES OF OXFORD AND BOLINGBROKE — FOUNDATION OF 

bolingbroke's Examiner — prosecution of the opposition — 

THE TORY POLITICAL CLUB — SWIFT AS DIRECTOR OF PARTY 
JOURNALISM — THE PATRONAGE OFFERED TO COMPETENT WRITERS — 
REWARDS TO SWIFT FOR HIS SERVICES. 

When England, in 1710, came under the control of Robert Harley, 
Earl of Oxford, 1 her political affairs were in chaos. Tory and Whig 
alike distrusted the new favorite of Queen Anne. No one felt sure of 
a place in the new government, for the noncommittal manner of Oxford 
whenever party lines were under discussion did not please office seekers. 
The Whigs quite naturally suspected some deceit to lie behind this 
mask. As for the Tories, the mere suggestion of a bi-partisan govern- 
ment was enough to cause great uneasiness in their ranks, for division 
of the expected spoils was their worst fear. Consequently, the newly 
appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer 2 realized that he had many po- 
tential enemies about him and very few loyal supporters. It was with a 
dubious future that he began forming plans for a new administration. 

It would be useless to examine in detail all the conditions under 
which Oxford took up his task. At present, it is important only to 
remember that the new leader had behind him no unified organization; 
he had deprived himself of that means to political strength by trying 
to ignore party lines. Though the elections of 1710 had brought into 
parliament a strong Tory majority, Oxford did not presume this to be 
due to his personal popularity. The common people merely used this 
means of discrediting the persecutors of Sacheverell. Their Tory votes 
were but the aftermath of that strange political accident that had led 
Queen Anne to break the Whig rule on June 3, 1710, by dismissing 
Sunderland from his place as Secretary of State. That act had opened 
the way for the Tories as an alternative, but it had not made them or 
their leader desired by the common voters of England. 

1 Robert Harley was created Baron of Wigmore, Earl of Oxford, and Earl Mor- 
timer on May 23, 1711. For convenience all further reference to him will be by his 
title as Earl of Oxford. 

2 Oxford was virtually in control before receiving this appointment, which was 
made on August 10, 1710. 



SWIFT'S RELATIONS WITH THE TORY MINISTRY 31 

It was clear to Oxford that he had more prospect of favor with the 
people than with the professional politicians. His experience in 1707, 
during the preliminaries to the union of Scotland and England, had 
taught him the uses of popular appeals through the press. He there- 
fore set out to increase the efficiency of his publicity agencies. 

Perhaps a survey of the work accomplished by Henry St. John, 
Viscount Bolingbroke, 3 will best reveal Oxford's devices. This active 
politician had previously shown an interest in party journalism, and 
was eager to act as news director of the administration. He made his 
desire known as soon as a reconstruction of the government appeared 
certain; thus in the fall of 1710 he assumed the responsibility of promot- 
ing a new Tory journal. Having gained at once the good will of the 
journalists, he sought boldly through their help to get an important 
post in the Oxford ministry. Largely because of the pressure thus 
brought to bear, on September 21, 1710, Oxford made him Secretary 
of State for the Northern Department. 

The manner in which Bolingbroke demonstrated his zeal before 
gaining the place of secretary is of importance. As a bolster to the 
unstable Tory cause, on August 3, 1710 he brought out the first issue 
of a new journal, the Examiner. At once the paper became the official 
organ of the unformed party. Popular opinion turned to the side of 
Oxford as soon as the Examiner began its expositions of party policy, 
and as a result its promoter rose to a position of influence among the 
grateful Tories. He was recognized as the codifier for public use of their 
political opinions. His was a place of tremendous possibilities at a 
time when political meetings were unknown and reports of parliamen- 
tary procedure were strictly forbidden. Operating under government 
protection, Bolingbroke established himself firmly in popular esteem 
and also in the councils of his party. Through fortunate circumstances 
he ingratiated himself with everyone, greatly increased his own political 
importance, and soon compelled Oxford to give him more and more power. 
At last he was able to defy his former master. 

The new Secretary was quick to make capital out of his opportuni- 
ties. Having full control still of the Examiner, he was able to make his 
private opinions appear to be established Tory doctrines. He became, in 
short, a public figure demanding consideration. On one occasion he 
wrote to Marlborough that he had "given the proper hint" 4 to the 

3 St. John became Viscount Bolingbroke on July 7, 1712. As with Oxford, further 
reference to him will be by the familiar title. 

« March 20, 1710-11. Works (1798 ed.) I, 115. 



32 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

Examiner regarding a particular mailer, with the implication that he 
was in full control of that means to popular attention. Apparently men 
of his own party recognized his command of the situation. Such sug- 
gestion lies in the comment of a contemporary, who called him a "Writer 
and Director of other Writers for the Ministry" 5 — clear evidence that he 
was esteemed to be in full control of Tory journalism. 

This power came to him through his dealings with such writers as 
depended upon their work for a livelihood, for the bulk of the Tory news 
matter was produced by hired subordinates. With Swift's help Boling- 
broke brought to terms every capable journalist who was not beyond 
solicitation. Though no account books prove to-day what sums he 
distributed, the unrefuted charges of his contemporaries demonstrate 
that Bolingbroke used money freely in promoting his Tory propaganda. 
One Whig journal, the Medley, not only charged him with having bought 
up writers for his journals: it also laid to his account every misfortune 
befalling those venturing to write against the ministry. 6 Another con- 
temporary work contains slurring reference to Bolingbroke and his 
methods in the statement, "Mr. Mainwaring [a Whig editor] never 
doubted, but what Mr. St. J[oh]n was the main Promoter of that Paper 
[the Examiner], and if Mr. H[arle]y paid for it out of the Publick Purse, 
he [Bolingbroke] not only contributed to it out of his private One, but 
also by his assistance in Writing and Correcting." 7 Such statements add 
weight to the natural supposition that the Tory party fostered political 
journalism; they also point to a general understanding of Bolingbroke's 
function in the administration. With the appearance of the Examiner 
and subsequent Tory sheets began a vigorous defence of the ruling party 
quite different from the temperate procedure of the London Gazette. 
Swift and Bolingbroke thus demonstrated the worth of Oxford's plan. 

During these last four years of Queen Anne's reign the usual methods 
of checking opposition journals were continued. Writers, printers, and 
publishers suffered fine or imprisonment as punishment for seditious 
publication, but at first such hindrances to free speech put but little 
restraint upon production. Whig journals, particularly the Medley, 
continued during 1710 and 1711 to publish frank comments upon the 
party in power, while Bolingbroke was gradually developing the intensity 
of his attacks upon their liberties. His prosecutions became more fre- 

s The Grand Accuser the Greatest of Criminals, etc., p. 10. 

• The Medley, XXXI, April 30, 1711; XXXIX, June 25, 1711. 

7 John Oldmixon, The Life . . . of Arthur Mainwaring, Esq., p. 158. 



SWIFT'S RELATIONS WITH THE TORY MINISTRY 33 

quent, rewards were advertised as in waiting for informers against Whig 
journalists, and measures were adopted that promised only evil fortune 
for all working against the Oxford administration. 8 

Hindrances to the Whig journals were of varied sorts. The best 
known measure of Bolingbroke's repressive campaign was the Stamp 
Act of 1712, imposing a tax upon all English sheets and pamphlets. 
This tax upon printed matter was not made chiefly for revenue purposes, 
but with the hope that the charges might prove prohibitive for the Whig 
journals. Swift for one expected great results from the measure and 
exulted over the prospect of seeing his foes undone; 9 but he eventually 
admitted regretfully that the Whigs had defeated Bolingbroke's plan by 
subsidizing their journals more liberally. 10 Other forms of persecution 
were the institution of more vigorous proceedings against printers and 
publishers on the Whig side, and the immediate arrest of all dealers or 
hawkers caught selling seditious pamphlets. Frequently the papers were 
burned publicly by the common hangman while the writer or printer 
stood out his sentence in the pillory at Charing Cross or near the Ex- 
change. When not in the stocks, such prisoners lay in jail without hope 
of bail. Government spies gathered the information needed for these 
prosecutions, and often were able to intercept seditious articles on their 
way to the press. 11 Contemporary references to such practices are so 
frequent as to prove them common 12 during the years 1712-1714. 

One should not assume from these statements that Bolingbroke con- 
fined his activities to the founding of one journal and an occasional 
prosecution of his opponents. Two months after beginning the Examiner 
the Secretary was also busy with plans to control the foreign press, that 
he might win good will for the new ministry among England's allies. 
His hope was to extend the power of the Tory party abroad as an aid to 

8 The earliest date found for a signed offer of reward is May 19, 1713. On that 
day Bolingbroke printed over his own name an advertisement in the London Gazette 
promising £100 reward for the arrest of George Ridpath, editor of the Flying Post. By 
that time he evidently had discarded all pretensions of concealment and openly admit- 
ted his interest in prosecutions. For contemporary comment see Boyer's Political Slate 
of Great Britain, etc., V, 378. 

9 Journal to Stella, July 19 and August 7, 1712. 

10 For a full discussion of this act and its effect see pp. 76-78. 

11 Reports from such spies are scattered throughout the State Papers. In the same 
connection see Swift's letter to Archbishop King, May 10, 1711. Works, XV, 421. 

12 A good idea of the modes of persecuting Whig writers can be got from an exami- 
nation of Luttrell's Brief Historical Relation of Stale Affairs, Boyer's Political State of 
Great Britain, and similar works of the time. 



34 I'ARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

its safety at home. In one letter written for this end he assured his cor- 
respondent in Holland that nothing detrimental to Dutch interests 
should appear unchallenged in the papers of England, provided that 
similar restrictions were placed upon the Dutch press. Continuing, 
Bolingbroke revealed that another end sought in his request was to get 
from Holland information of use in prosecuting Whig journalists at home. 
Apparently the opposition was unusually active abroad, and Bolingbroke 
wished to destroy their means of communication. He wrote: " I thought 
it might be more easy to discover in Holland than here, through what 
channel those party-lies are conveyed to your news- writers; I fancy 
Buckley, the writer of the Daily Courant, may have some share in this 
correspondence." 13 This letter was written in 1710 at a time prior to 
Bolingbroke's open prosecutions of the Whig journalists. Its existence, 
therefore, proves that if more secretive then than later, he was neverthe- 
less equally vindictive during the first part of Oxford's ministry. Appar- 
ently from the outset he subjected the opposition press to relentless 
harrying. 

Filially, in addition to patronizing Tory journalists and prosecuting 
their Whig opponents, as a further help to the government Bolingbroke 
set out in 1711 to form a political club. It was to be patterned after 
existing organizations, whose chief end was to afford places for social 
conferences between writers and political leaders. London possessed 
many such clubs during the latter part of Queen Anne's reign. Their 
individuality was preserved by the identification of the groups with the 
respective coffee-houses where the members always met, and under the 
evident social reason for such gatherings always existed more serious 
purpose. It was with the usual coffee-house club of the day in mind that 
Bolingbroke on June 12, 1711, set down in a letter to the Earl of Orrery 
the plans for a new Tory organization. His statement was made so 
specific in every detail that it furnishes absolute proof of the political 
intention prompting the action. Perhaps no equally lucid description 
of the purposes of an eighteenth century club can be found, and for this 
reason Bolingbroke's letter may well be quoted at length. In outlining 
the plan, he wrote: ". . . I must, before I send this letter, give 
your Lordship an account of a club which I am forming; and which, as 
light as the design may seem to be, I believe will prove of real service. 
We shall begin to meet in a small number, and that will be composed of 
some who have wit and learning to recommend them; of others who, from 
their own situations, or from their relations, have power and influence, 

13 Bolingbroke to Mr. Drummond, October 13, 1710, Works (1798 ed.) I, 6. 



SWIFT'S RELATIONS WITH THE TORY MINISTRY 35 

and of others who, from accidental reasons, may properly be taken in. 
The first regulation proposed, and that which must be inviolably kept, 
is decency. None of the extravagance of the kit-cat, none of the drunk- 
enness of the beef-steak is to be endured. The improvement of friend- 
ship, and the encouragement of letters, are to be the two great ends of 
our society. A number of valuable people will be kept in the same mind, 
and others will be made converts to their opinions. 

"Mr. Fen ton, and those who, like him, have genius, will have a 
corporation of patrons to protect and advance them in the world. The 
folly of our party will be ridiculed and checked ; the opposition of another 
will be better resisted; a multitude of other good uses will follow, which 
I am sure do not escape you; and I hope in the winter to ballot for the 
honor of your company amongst us. 

I am ever, my dear Lord. &c." 14 

In this union of party leaders and writers 15 Bolingbroke possessed the 
organization needed then by any religious or political group that depend- 
ed for success upon popular good-will. 

In reviewing Bolingbroke's position among these Tory politicians and 
writers, one discerns what an important part his journalistic interests 
played in the development of his power. By reason of his popularity among 
men of the writing profession he was first chosen to organize a staff of 
writers for the new Tory organ : then, by their insistence in his behalf, he be- 
came Oxford's Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Thereafter 
his gains in political influence came largely through a use of the Examiner. 
Having created the journal, from the first he dominated it. Its policies 
were often his own rather than those of the entire Tory party, but reitera- 
tion soon made identical in the minds of men these personal opinions and 
the broad plans of the ministry. Thus Bolingbroke formulated the 
creed of the Tories and in so doing became their spokesman. Recognized 
as such by men of all political beliefs, he rose to a place of leadership 
that made him as important publicly as Oxford himself. Finally, the 
Secretary added to such widespread influence the help of a political club, 
in which he individually held the reins. As in the councils of the Exami- 
ner staff, there Bolingbroke also held first place. Several wealthy Tory 

11 Works (1798 ed.), I, 246. 

16 The editor of Bolingbroke's works (1798 ed.) gives (I, 247 n.) the following 
list of members: " . . Earl of Arran, Lord Harley, Duke of Ormond, Swift, Sir 
Robert Raymond, Arbuthnot, Duke of Shrewsbury, Lord Duplin, Sir William Wynd- 
ham, George Granville, Masham, Earl of Jersey, Bathurst, Orrery, Colonel Hill, 
Colonel Desney, Bolingbroke, Duke of Beaufort, Prior, Dr. Freind, etc. Their meet- 
ings were first at their several houses, but afterwards they hired a room near St. James." 



36 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

noblemen and a few writers of the first rank were his advisors and sup- 
porters in this new organization, so that he lacked neither funds nor 
active assistants. He stood in a position of peculiar importance among 
his fellows. Journalist and statesman alike found in him the means of 
advancing themselves, and they consequently lent him every assistance. 
From such circumstances he reaped a personal advantage proportionately 
great. All of these elements in Bolingbroke's rise to prominence can 
reasonably be considered due to a personal control of the great Tory 
journal, the Examiner, and to a careful development of his duties as news 
director of the party. 

Among the Secretary's active advisors the foremost was Jonathan 
Swift, whose greatest fame as a politician rests upon his party writings 
for Bolingbroke and the Earl of Oxford. Among the Tory journalists 
he was leader and next in importance to Bolingbroke himself as director 
of the Tory propaganda. The relations of Swift and Bolingbroke with 
one another were very similar to those of Addison and Walpole in the 
Whig party; in each case a great writer depended upon a prominent 
politician for the financial backing needed to attract other writers to the 
party standard. Both Swift and Addison were unofficial agents of their 
respective political organizations. They also wrote freely in support of 
Whig and Tory measures, and hoped through the indulgence of others 
to get suitable rewards. 

The chief facts concerning Swift's career are of common knowledge. 
In September 1710 he reappeared in England after a term in Ireland, 
ready to serve the party offering the best inducements. Past events had 
embittered him towards the Whigs, but he was unwilling to enter imme- 
diately the service of their opponents; on the contrary, he refused to 
aid either side, played off one against the other without displaying any 
personal feeling whatever, and then finally threw in his lot with Tories. 
No one who has read his Journal to Stella doubts that in making this 
decision Swift looked for personal advantage. His letters reveal a self- 
seeking spirit intermingled with a secret satisfaction over the attentions 
paid him by both parties. On one occasion he boasted that Oxford 
flattered him at every turn, while the Whigs in their extremity would 
have laid hold on him as one might have seized a twig when drowning. 16 
A month after writing in this fashion regarding his situation, Swift 
again referred to the attentions paid him, saying, "Oxford knew my 
Christian name ... he charged me to come to him often." 17 

16 Journal to Stella, September 9, 1710. 

"Ibid., October 7, 1710; October S, 1710. 



SWIFT'S RELATIONS WITH THE TORY MINISTRY 37 

Such comments could be paralleled many times from the Journal, and 
all would make evident his determination in 1710 to seek his own best 
interests. Of all the writers then in England, he was most keenly alive 
to the possibilities of his age, and probably no one was more ready to 
ignore private political beliefs for the sake of immediate advantage. 

Other sources of information besides the Journal to Stella prove that 
his desire for personal advantage was known to men outside his own 
social group. Arthur Mainwaring, a writer on the Whig side, judged 
him ready in 1710 to write for either party, 18 and during the time of 
Swift's vacillation his motives must have been entirely evident to all. 
He himself made no attempt to conceal his intentions under a cloak 
of pretended Toryism, but was frank in his requests for favor. No hint 
of excuse appears in bis note of January 5, 1712-13, in which he wrote to 
Oxford: "I most humbly take leave to inform your Lordship that the 
Dean of Wells died this morning at one o'clock. I entirely submit my 
fortunes to your Lordship." 19 Here is an unparalleled example of open 
appeal for patronage. 20 

During the years preceding this direct demand Swift had steadily 
increased the obligation that made the Tory leaders liable to such a 
request. During 1710 he had worked continually to improve the Exami- 
ner, and in doing so had put St. John deeply in his debt. Oxford shared 
in the resultant advantages to the party, and also enjoyed the private 
advices of his aid in all matters bearing on the attitude of the public 
towards the administration. It was while living at Chelsea in 1711 
that Swift formulated the rules of that literary-political group from 
which the Scriblerus Club developed. The original organization, which 
was active in promoting Tory policies, was composed of twelve members, 

18 John Oldmixon, Life . . . of Arthur Mainwaring, Esq., p. 158. 

19 Bath MSS, I, 228. 

20 A recent book on English journalism contains an unwarranted paragraph on 
Swift's motives. It reads: "Before Swift no political writer had shown such indiffer- 
ence to patronage or employment by political chiefs. His superiority to such con- 
siderations first raised him above the level of party hacks, and then proved instrumental 
in lifting Swift's branch of the writing profession to a higher plane." (T. H. S. Escott, 
Leaders of English Journalism, p. 91). The error in such a declaration seems entirely 
obvious, for Swift's whole career shows his desire for place. 

A proper mode of examining Swift's record is to determine first how much he 
deserved. Having freely sold himself to the highest bidder, what did he do to merit 
reward? Both his writings and the clamor of party leaders for his help prove that 
according to contemporary estimate of his deserts he was treated badly in the final 
settlement. 



38 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

all of them intensely Tory in their sympathies and in some fashion able 
to help on the party propaganda. 

Up to the middle of July 1711 his services on the Examiner and in 
defending Oxford's personal integrity had been considerable, 21 but in 
November of that year he surpassed all previous efforts in his Conduct 
of the Allies. The significance of this pamphlet has often been comment- 
ed upon, and no one questions the usual belief that it saved Oxford's 
ministry from overthrow upon the return of the victorious Marlborough. 
In January 1711-12, Swift prevented internal dissension by silencing the 
radical Tories with another pamphlet, called Some Advice humbly offered 
to the Members of the October Club, in a letter from a Person of Honour, 
so that all in all by the end of 1712 he rightfully expected fit reward. 

Thereafter he continued to aid Bolingbroke in matters of news dis- 
semination and regulation, and he likewise persisted in writing Tory 
pamphlets of high merit. Following his justifiable quarrel with Steele 
in 1713, he entered into a controversy with his Whig opponent which 
marks fairly well the height of political pamphleteering during the 
Queen Anne period. Two pamphlets 22 preceded Steele's Crisis (January 
19, 1714) and Swift's Public Spirit of the Whigs (March 1714), but they 
were little more than prefaces to these great documents. The current 
suspicion that the Tories were planning secretly to bring back the Pre- 
tender, was serious enough to threaten the life of the Tory party, and 
it was at this critical juncture that Swift's pamphlet again turned the 
balance in favor of the ministry. Parliament showed great interest in 
the work of the two pamphleteers; Swift was attacked in the House of 
Lords, and Steele in the House of Commons. The circumstances made 
the two journalists the most prominent figures in public life and led to 
general recognition of their importance. The favorable turn of events 
in this crisis ought surely to have impressed the ministry with a sense of 
obligation to Swift, who unaided had frustrated a determined attempt 
to drive them from power. 

Apart from his services as a journalist, Swift held, as has been noted, 
the important post of intermediary between the Tory leaders and peti- 
tioners for favor. Bishop Kennett's diary affords the most striking con- 
temporary description of him in court circles performing such duties. 
The account reads as follows: "When I came to the antechamber to wait 

21 His personal defence of Oxford was made in " Some Remarks upon a Pamphlet 
entitled A Letter to the Seven Lords of the Committee appointed to examine Gregg." (1711) 

22 The Importance of Dunkirk Considered (September), by Steele, and The Import- 
ance of the Guardian Considered (December, 1713), by Swift. 



SWIFT'S RELATIONS WITH THE TORY MINISTRY 39 

before prayers, Dr. Swift was the principal man of talk and business, and 
acted as a master of requests. He was soliciting the Earl of Arran to 
speak to his brother the Duke of Ormond, to get a chaplain's place 
established in the garrison of Hull for Mr. Fiddes, a clergyman in that 
neighborhood, who had lately been in gaol, and published sermons to 
pay his fees. He was promising Mr. Thorold to undertake with my 
Lord Treasurer, that, according to his petition, he would obtain a salary 
of £200 per annum, as Minister of the English Church at Rotterdam. 
Then he stopt F. Gwynne, Esq., going in with his red badge to the 
Queen, and told him aloud he had somewhat to say to him from my 
Lord Treasurer . . . Lord Treasurer, after leaving the Queen, came 
through the room, beckoning Dr. Swift to follow him: both went off just 
before prayers." 23 As this account was written by one who heartily 
disliked him, it can be considered an accurate exposition of Swift's im- 
portance at court. 

Yet it was not there that Swift was of greatest service. He had far 
more influence in literary circles, where he was so far above the others 
in individual influence that he could be for Oxford and Bolingbroke a 
very efficient agent. Almost as soon as he entered Tory service Swift 
began to use his personal influence to bring other writers into closer 
relations with the administration, and in 1711 he became genuinely 
active. In June he wrote: " . . . This evening I have had a letter 
from Mr. Philips, the pastoral poet, to get him a certain employment 
from Lord Treasurer. I have now had almost all the Whig poets my 
solicitors; and I have been useful to Congreve, Steele, and Harrison: 
but I will do nothing for Philips; I find he is more a puppy than ever, 
so don't solicit for him. Besides, I will not trouble Lord Treasurer^ 
unless upon some very extraordinary occasion." 24 Long afterwards, on 
December 27, 1712, he wrote again to Stella concerning his earlier solici- 
tations for Whig writers and of how time had affected his friendships: 
"I met Mr. Addison and Pastoral Philips on the Mall today, and took a 
turn with them; but they both looked terribly dry and cold. A curse on 
party! And do you know I have taken more pains to recommend the 
Whig wits to the favour and mercy of the Ministers than any other 
people. Steele I have kept in his place, Congreve I have got used kindly, 
and secured. Rowe I have recommended and got a promise of a place. 
Philips I could certainly have provided for, if he had not run party mad, 
and made me withdraw my recommendation; and I set Addison so right 

23 Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, etc., I, 399 n. 

24 Journal to Stella, June 30, 1711. 



40 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

at first that he might have been employed, and have partly secured him 
the place he has; yet I am worse used by that faction than any man." 

Turning from these general statements of Swift's regarding his con- 
cern for the welfare of the Whig writers, one quickly comes upon other 
facts regarding his understanding of the new conditions. His reference 
to an early attempt in Addison's behalf indicates that in the first months 
of Tory rule, and even as late as June 30, 1711, Addison was not con- 
sidered an active Whig partisan. This fact will be commented on further 
in a separate account of that writer's full service to the Whigs; it is 
important here merely as showing that Swift was slow to realize the 
growth of a literary movement in behalf of Whig measures. He did not 
at first discern how completely some writers were soon to identify them- 
selves with the other political party, and consequently he was disgusted 
at the unwillingness of his literary acquaintances to accept offers of> 
government posts. Having discovered, presently, the determination of 
such firm Whigs as Addison and Steele to remain true to their party, 
he "promised Lord Treasurer never to speak for either again." 25 Within 
a month of Swift's determination never again to solicit for Addison, the 
latter wrote to a friend that fidelity to the W T higs had cost him places 
worth £2,000 a year. 26 The conclusion to be drawn from these letters is, 
that Swift's hints had become more and more pointed during 1710 and 
the early part of 1711, until Addison saw that his complete refusal of 
Tory patronage would be credited only when he became actively a Whig. 
As a result of his coldness Swift broke off negotiations completely, and 
soon after Addison publicly showed his intention to work aggressively 
for his own party. 

As will appear later, Steele was more willing to entertain offers of 
Tory patronage. 27 Swift kept him in the post of stamp commissioner 
long after the Whig party had fallen, and thus prevented a bold profession 
of Whig partisanship. Though known then through his writings as a 
Whig, Steele found it profitable as late as the fall of 1712 to assure Oxford 
of his good will towards the Tory administration. Shortly afterwards, 
like Addison, he entered a new phase of his career, broke openly with 
Swift, and turned upon the Oxford ministry with the greatest energy. 
Meanwhile, Swift had won a tactical victory for his party in keeping 

26 Journal to Stella, June 29, 1711. 

28 Addison to Edward Wortley Montagu, Esq., July 21, 1711; quoted by N. Drake, 
Essays . . . Illustrative of the Taller, etc. (1805 ed), I, 350. 

» See p. 74. 



SWIFT'S RELATIONS WITH THE TORY MINISTRY 41 

this most capable journalist out of Whig service until Oxford's adminis- 
tration had passed through two full years. 28 

In his dealings with Abel Boyer, Swift showed still more definitely 
how influential he was with the ministry and how generally he was 
held responsible for the rewards dealt out by the Tories. After showing 
constant Whig partisanship for years by writing for the Postboy, Boyer 
in 1709 discreetly changed to the side of the Tories. He was led to do 
so through personal reasons, but was very willing to write, for profit, 
against his former friends. Oxford and Swift, however, mistrusted 
such an unusual convert to the cause and gave him nothing. 29 Blocked 
in his plans to obtain a state appointment under the Tories, Boyer went 
back to the Whigs and turned his wrath against the one who had evi- 
dently done him the injustice. As Swift was obviously the one responsi- 
ble for the selection of writers for the government, he became the object 
of Boyer's abusive articles. 30 

Not only Steele, Addison, Philips, and Boyer, but other writers of 
less importance came under Swift's scrutiny. Some of them are men- 
tioned in his Journal to Stella, among others a young fellow named 
William Harrison. Swift undoubtedly had been attracted by Harri- 
son's personality during the period when the literary groups of London 
were still undivided by political opinion. At all events, Swift seems to 
have been particularly fond of him and to have sought in various ways 
some method of getting him into employment. First, he put the young, 
inexperienced writer at work upon a new Taller — Steele's journal having 
been discontinued — , but by the opening of 1711 it was clear that Harri*- 
son lacked the wit necessary for such writing. Upon seeing the project 
languish, 31 Swift next sought a political appointment for his protege and 
soon persuaded Bolingbroke to make Harrison secretary to Lord Raby, 
Ambassador at the Hague. In his Journal for March 15, 1711, he re- 

28 Addison during this time had some share in controlling Steele's acts, chiefly in 
preventing the injection of partisan matter into the Spectator essays. 

29 From 1705 to 1709 Boyer wrote regularly against the Tories. He then followed 
up a quarrel with his fellow workers by starting a Tory journal, the True Postboy. 
It was after this that he asked patronage of Oxford. See p. 71, n. 34 

30 He first attacked Swift in his Political State for 1711 (p. 646), and then in a 
pamphlet entitled An Account of the State and Progress of the Present Negotiations for 
Peace. In revenge for the second attack Swift had Boyer arrested, only to see him 
released. {Journal to Stella, Oct. 16, 1711.) 

31 Journal to Stella, January 13, 1710-11. 



42 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

ferred to the place as "the prettiest employment in all Europe," and 
later stated that the post was worth twelve hundred pounds a year. 83 

There are other instances of Swift's generosity and friendly interest. 
Through Bolingbroke he helped William Diaper, an insignificant poetast- 
er, to a living. 33 He also wrote for a Mr. Pilkington several essays which 
were then sold to Bowyer, the printer, for a good sum. 34 Later he aided 
the same writer to the place of chaplain to Alderman Barber, a post that 
brought him a hundred thirty pounds a year. 35 Another chaplainship 
he secured from the Earl of Oxford for Richard Fiddes. 

Some such cases as the preceding can be credited to Swift's friendly 
interest in less fortunate men, but in not many others does his charity 
seem without obviously practical motives. Among his purposeful transac- 
tions was that with Nicholas Rowe. In a letter of December 27, 1712 
Swift wrote to Stella that he then had promise of a place for Rowe, but 
it soon appeared that the poet was not to be won over in such fashion. 
He remained true to his party and later became poet-laureate through 
this fidelity. Another poet, Thomas Parnell, was more tractable. As 
early as 1710 he submitted to persuasion and joined the Tories. As a 
means to special favor Parnell followed Swift's suggestion to insert 
verses complimentary to Bolingbroke in a poem then ready for presen- 
tation at court. The device was successful, and commenting upon the 
incident his advisor boasted, "I value myself on making the Ministry 
desire to be acquainted with Parnell, and not Parnell with the Minis- 
try.'* 36 As reward for joining the Tories the poet in 1713 gained the 
prebend of Dunlavin. Three years later he was granted the vicarage 
of Finglas, worth four hundred pounds annually, even though the Tories 
were then out of power. 

52 Harrison held this place until his death in February 1713, at the age of twenty- 
seven. Probably because of slack methods in the Treasury Swift had to record that 
"though he teased their heart out" the officials never paid Harrison a groat. Journal 
to Stella, February 12, 1713. 

M Ibid., December 23, 1712. 

54 John Nichols, Anecdotes of Bowyer, etc., 70 n. 

35 Letter from Alderman Barber, November 17, 1733. Works, XVIII, 165. 

36 Journal to Stella, January 31, 1712-13. 



SWIFT'S RELATIONS WITH THE TORY MINISTRY 43 

Swift also boasted of other services to the party during Oxford's 
ministry. He got the office of Gazetteer 37 for Charles Ford, a post worth 
about two hundred fifty pounds a year. 38 He also asserted that Mrs. 
Manley, the editor of the Examiner during part of 1711, profited through 
his assistance. Her claims to patronage dated back to the publication 
in 1709 of her New Atalantis, which had stirred London with its bitterly 
satirical sketches of the Whig leaders and its contrasting laudation of 
Harley, Lord Oxford. Attracted then by her ability in satirical por- 
traiture, Swift remembered her in the days when forming the Examiner 
staff and later saw to her appointment as editor following his with- 
drawal from that place. He also seconded her appeal to Lord Peter- 
borough for private patronage, 39 and in less important instances gave 
her his full support. It is not material to the present study that his 
aid may have been prompted by real friendship for Mrs. Manley, for 
the political consequences of his acts would have been in any case the 
same. It is, however, significant of something that Swift's friendship 
or esteem seemed the needful preliminary to appointment in the Tory 
news organization. 

The favors granted to John Gay may be classed among those given 
with small prospect of return in service. During the last four years of 
Queen Anne's reign Gay was not interested in politics. He professed 
no political opinions, and his appeals for favor were made without 
regard for party distinctions, with no end except that of personal advan- 
tage. Gay felt that his graceful verses entitled him to government 
patronage, but his many friends among the nobility vainly tried to win 

37 The following letter gives an account of this office : 

December 15, 1798. 
Edmund Malone to Wm. Windham. 
"The office of the writer of the Gazette I believe it will be found, has always been 
in the gift of the Secretary of State for the Home Department. That Secretary is 
the Keeper of the Signet: and the writer of the Gazette has often been one of the clerks 
of the Signet. . . The Gazette itself is supposed to be the immediate production of 
the Secretary of State for the Home Department or emanates from that office; in 
consequence of which, alterations are made frequently in the proof of the Gazette, while 
passing through the press, by orders from that office. Hence all the volumes of the 
Gazettes, from the beginning in the time of Charles the Second, are preserved in the 
office of the Secretary of the Home Department. Do not all these circumstances shew, 
that the appointment of the writer of the Gazette belongs to him?" The Windham 
Papers, (1913 ed.), I, 89-90: quoted from Add. MS 37,854, fol. 152. 

38 This is Swift's own estimate. See his letter to Archbishop King, January 8, 
1712. Works, XV, 487. 

39 Journal to Stella, July 3, 1711. 



44 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

for him any favors at court. Swift, however, was successful. In the 
summer of 1714 he secured for Gay the place of secretary to Lord Clar- 
endon, envoy-extraordinary to Hanover; and Gay, after complaining at a 
lack of funds for traveling expenses, 40 set out to enjoy his first state 
appointment. His good fortune, though it ended abruptly at the death 
of Queen Anne, must be reckoned as due wholly to the good offices of 
his friend. 

If we may trust his own statements, Swift also assisted Congreve by 
keeping him in his government position after those interested in his case 
had lost all political power and influence. Policy alone might have led 
Oxford to pension such a prominent Whig in order to win good will for 
his administration; yet Swift repeatedly wrote that he feared Congreve 
was about to lose his place as commissioner of wine licenses, and con- 
sidered it a personal victory when Oxford allowed the Whig poet to 
continue in office. 41 It appears, however, that Lord Halifax was also 
influential with the Lord Treasurer in this matter. On May 13, 1714, 
the former wrote in behalf of the poet: "Poor Congreve is again alarmed 
by reports that he has had that their commission [of wine licenses] 
is renewing. He does not doubt the continuance of your Lordship's 
favour to him, depending on the assurances you have given him, as well 
as me, of your care and protection of him. But I beg you will enable me 
to ease him entirely of his fears." 42 By its backward reference this letter 
proves that Halifax had long been interested in Congreve, so that proba- 
bly Swift was not, in this case, peculiarly influential with the ministry. 

The fact that Oxford spared Congreve all this time may be inter- 
preted variously. He may have retained the poet in office through 
fear of personal unpopularity following' his dismissal, or he may have 
felt that such a man would remain unaggressive only so long as he held 
a government post. The third possibility — the most probable — is that 
Oxford, from first to last, wished to recognize his literary merit without 
thought of payment in service, but that temporarily outside pressure 
forced him to look upon Congreve's dismissal as a necessity. He had 
been known as a patron of letters in preceding years, and now his political 
power enabled him to patronize liberally at state expense. The repeated 
attempts to remove the dramatist from his Tory post prove that party 
feeling was intense, for under the conditions prevailing during previous 

40 Gay to the [Earl of Oxford], June 10, 1714. Portland MSS, V, 457. 
" Journal to Stella, June 22, June 30, July 2, 1711; December 27, 1712. 
*■ Lord Halifax to the [Earl of Oxford]. Portland MSS, V, 438. 



SWIFT'S RELATIONS WITH THE TORY MINISTRY 45 

decades there would have been no need to plead for the retention in 
government service of such a famous writer. 

These accounts do not sum up all the reasons for Swift's expectation 
of substantial recognition. Not only through an exercise of personal 
influence among men of letters had he worked for the strengthening of 
Oxford's administration; from the day of his admission to the inner 
councils of the party he had been a valued advisor of the Tory leaders. 
He had brought into the party such of the Whig nobility as were not 
completely loyal to that cause, and at least in the case of Lord Peter- 
borough had drawn a very valuable worker into the Tory circle. Little 
need be said of the efficacy of his writings that opportunely appeared to 
meet the attacks upon Oxford's ministry. The full sum of his service 
through these various means was rounded out in 1713 at the completion 
of peace negotiations with France. This event brought the Tory admin- 
istration into a position of security, and consequently to a time for 
accounting with its loyal adherents who had so far failed to get their 
due rewards. Swift, among them, waited dubiously for the settling of 
his account. 

His own Journal contains a graphic picture of his situation during the 
days when Oxford, the Duke of Ormond, and the Queen were bickering 
over the distribution of vacant deaneries. 43 The Queen stubbornly 
opposed all pleas in Swift's behalf. Her prejudice had been inspired by 
the Archbishop of York and the Duchess of Somerset, against whose 
influence Oxford and Erasmus Lewis vainly strove. At length, on 
April 23, 1713, the opposition compromised, and Swift was entered in a 
signed warrant as the new dean of St. Patrick's. His personal feelings 
had by then been grievously wounded through the temporizing tactics 
pursued, and in the final decision he saw only utter banishment from 
English politics. To settle outside of England meant complete detach- 
ment from court intrigue for all time to come. Even Oxford's tardy 
promise of a Treasury order for a thousand pounds was futile as solace, 
for the new administration prevented the payment. It is not, therefore, 
a pleasing picture that one forms of Swift as he left for Dublin on the 
first day of June 1713. His days of political power were gone forever, 
and as a future prospect he saw only a secluded life amid surroundings 
utterly distasteful. 

In order to appreciate the measure of his final disappointment, one 
must realize precisely what ambitions dominated Swift's mind during 
these years with the Tories. Actually, during his three years in public 

43 See especially Swift's entries for the second and third weeks of April, 1713 



46 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

life, he had the reward thai he most desired. His great longing was for 
a place of influence, a desire thai was gratified while everyone at court 
was paying him deference. Though never a government official, he was 
for three years more influential than any other man of his station then in 
public service, and his opportunities for dispensing favors to others gave 
him an authority among the Tory journalists that was matched only by 

Addison's power in similar respects on the Whig side. Swift was then 
realizing the greatest ambition of his life— to stand in high esteem with 
his fellow craftsmen and with those of noble rank. Had he obtained, 
in 1713, a high church office on English soil, he would have felt grateful 
to the Tories regardless of the income accruing from the appointment. 
For one whose purpose in life had always been to win power, not wealth 
or social position, unfriendly minds could have devised no greater sorrow 
than the prospect of life in an obscure Irish deanery. 

Yet in spite of the depressing circumstances of his withdrawal, Swift 
might have derived much satisfaction from a recollection o\ his work with 

Bolingbroke. He had demonstrated that through sheer merit a ma 
letters could win a place in tin- highest councils of the nation. His recom- 
mendations had brought into being a thoroughly efficienl news organi- 
zation, and his pamphlets had been able to determine the course of 

national events. Compared with Defoe, he lacked industry and resource- 
fulness; Addison outstripped them both in honors. Bui in mass of argu- 
ment and lucidity of style noonewas Swift's equal. l'his was the judg- 
ment oi his contemporaries, and it has been continued by succeeding 

generations. 



CHAPTER IV 

DEFOE AND THE EARL OF OXFORD 

oxford's interest in party journalism — the Review and defoe's 

NEWS ORGANIZATION — SECRET SERVICE JOURNEYS — THE MctCtllor 
— INTRIGUES AGAINST STEELE AND THE WHIG JOURNALS — DEFOE'S 

rewards — A n A ppeal to Honour and Justice. 

Daniel Defoe so far surpassed the other journalists of his day that 
he deserves individual consideration, even though he had no personal 
influence with minor writers. He was never publicly powerful in 
the manner of Addison or Swift, and yet in amount and variety of 
political service he stood above them. The devious methods necessary 
to the success of his secret missions removed him completely from pub- 
lic affairs, while regard for his personal safety made him still more secre- 
tive concerning all his movements. Consequently, on account of the 
uncertainty still existing as to his life story, particularly in regard to his 
real political importance, it is needful to summarize the known facts 
regarding his work for the Tory ministry in order to demonstrate his 
peculiar value to that party. 

As early as 1702 Harley wrote to Godolphin in a fashion that seemed 
to foreshadow Defoe's later role in government service. The letter read 
in part: "I will again take the liberty to offer to your Lordship that it 
will be of great service to have some discreet writer of the Government 
side, if it were only to state facts right; for the generality err for want 
of knowledge, and being imposed upon by the storys [sic] raised by ill- 
designing men." 1 On September 26, of the next year, Godolphin conclud- 
ed whatever correspondence had developed from this suggestion by 
writing to Harley: "What you propose about Defoe may be done when 
you will, and how you will," 2 and from then until Queen Anne's death 
brought the Tory power to an end, Defoe never freed himself from the 
control of one or the other of these two politicians. His service began 
definitely on February 19, 1704, with the first issue of the Review, admit- 
ted by Defoe in a letter of July 7 to be a government organ. 3 Until 
Harley's fall he constantly maintained the journal. The Review owed 
its foundation in part to the vigorous attacks of the opposition journals 

l Brit. Mus.Add.MS 28,055: quoted by E. S. Roscoe, Robert Harley, Karl of 
Oxford, p. 72. 

2 Portland MSS, IV, 68. 

Ubid., IV, 98. 



JS PARTI POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

but likewise to the discernment of Harley, Lord Oxford. He alone 
recognized in Defoe the factor necessary to the success of such a project. 
Nothing discloses more clearly than these early letters how well a 
tew part) leaders reali ed their need of trained journalists. Proof of 
ey's understanding lies in his prompt resolution to get Defoe into 
government service, a desire that compelled him to secure the release 

oi Ins chosen editor from Newgate prison. This step was taken secretly 
in order that as few people as possible might know of the relations 
existing between the two. and in later years Harley frequently repeated 
the procedure in getting Defoe tree from the hands of his own subordi- 
nate-. Narcissus l.uttrell often referred to the constant threats made b) 
minor officials 4 who wished to proseeute the editor of the Review] hut 
such menaces were fruitless against one who was secretly protected by 
the head of the ministry. 

As has been shown recently, very soon after promoting the R 
Harley had further reason for assisting its editor. ■' Not only by published 
writings but through private recommendations in matters of state De- 
foe served the administration and proved invaluable to his master, lie 
hist drew up a comprehensive plan for political procedure, apparently 
for Harley 's personal use; then in July 1704. he submitted written pro- 
posals for the establishment of a secret news service throughout England 
and the continent. Hie detailed exposition of both documents is a 
sufficient indication that they were prepared for serious consideration." 5 
In the earlier statement IVfoe asserted that £12,000 was then spent 
annually in F.ngland for obtaining secret intelligence in comparison with 
£11,000,000 used yearly for similar purposes by the King of France. 
V 1 '. only did he advise the use of secret agents in Scotland and in Paris. 
Toulon, Brest, and Dunkirk: he also strongly urged the need for greater 
secrecy in the home offices. These recommendations the government 
followed with a vigor that brought its natural result in a most compli- 
: . system of state payments for all forms of secret service. Defoe 
thus was the originator of a far-reaching policy that was followed by 

references to such attempted prosecutions are to be found in his 
• . .. . \ . M5>;\ [,96,216. 
v .... \ Sir George Warner contains Defoe's letter of recommend 
rding intelligence, a definite proof of his practical aid to the administration in an 
. See the : • , Hist, Rm . XXII (1907), HO rT. 
SS. iv. 106, 



DEI OE AND mi. EARL OP OXFORD 49 

Hurley's successors. 7 When II i liim his own instructions for 

secret ervice in Scotland, he merely restated the plans outlined by 
Defoe in thi i mmuni< ation,* 50 thai tin- agenl a< tually drew up 

the regulations for his own guidance. 

Still other forms of government ervice fell to I >< foe before 04 
tureo 1 upon his mission to Scotland, bul they were merely preliminaries. 

In 1704 he canvassed the eastern countie of England shortl) bi 
the election, and the nexl spring performed similar duties in the west, 

On the second journey he spent money freely,'' bul seems to have waiter] 
vainly for a promise of regular payment for his work. He failed in the 
spring of 1704 to gel "the convenient private allowance" 10 that he sought, 
and again, on July 9, 1705, vainly petitioned for a government pension. 11 
The administration leaders were unwilling to enter into a permanent 
agreement of any sort, and they seem likewise to have paid Defoe very 
little more than expense money for his secrel journeyings. 

Some months afier his experiences in i ountry elections Defoe boldly 
asked for two or three hundred pounds that he might satisfy various 
importunate creditors, but this letter of May 6, 1706, was as fruitless as 
his earlier requests. 12 In spite of such discouragements he seems to 
have found some encouraging signs, for he kept up the Review without a 
break and that fall made plans for an important mission to Scotland. 
His purpose there was to w r ork in behalf of the (,'nion, and before setting 
out from London he made preparations for an extended stay. Harley 
supplier! twenty-hve pounds for equipment,' 3 all of which must have been 
expended by the time Defoe completed his pun bases, finally, in New- 
castle. From October 2 to December 31, 1706, he received in all £103 
8s. for his service in Scotland, an estimate based upon the account kept 

7 Defoe made an interesting plea (<<r >< r< I i rvice by citing the example of John 
Milton. It was his practice, wrote Defoe, "to keep a constant epistolary eon versa - 
cion with severall foreign ministers of State and men of learning abstracted from affairs 
of state, but so woven with political observacions that he found it as useful! as any 
part of his foreign correspondence." Warner, ibid., p. 130. 

"The assumption that Harley's instructions, which are undated, were later than 
Defoe'i kng communication, rests upon the probability that Defoe would not have 
stated in suth detail plan- of aetion that had previously been settled The entire 
tone of his statement is that of a newly outlined plan. 

• Par Hand MSS, IV, 214. 

"I/Ad., IV, 89. 

u Ibid. s IV, 20.3-4. 

"Ibid., IV, 301. 

u Ibid., IV. 327. 



50 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

by John Bell of Newcastle, his paymaster. 14 This sum was small, 
inasmuch as Defoe paid all his expenses as he went from place to place; 
moreover, he frequently published news-letters in the provincial cities. 15 
In April 1707, Harley seems to have discontinued his payments, which 
evidently had been made from private funds with the expectation that 
Godolphin would soon supply Defoe from the Treasury. The depriva- 
tion brought a harsh letter from his agent, who was then in Edinburgh 
without money and with nothing more assuring than an encouraging let- 
ter from Godolphin promising help in the near future. 16 To enforce his 
importunate requests for ready money instead of promises, Defoe pro- 
bably put upon his brother-in-law, Robert Davis, the duty of seconding 
these appeals; at any rate, Davis wrote to Harley in behalf of his mes- 
senger's "sickly, large and needy family in London." 17 Defoe himself 
sent on another importunate letter, and finally, on November 28, 1707, 
received an order for one hundred pounds. 18 

During these years in Scotland, Defoe kept requesting some govern- 
ment appointment in recognition of his work for the Union. To him 
such a reward would have been an acknowledgment that his service had 
been highly honorable and successful — at least his letters to Oxford show 
a desire for such recognition in addition to payment in money. But 
these requests were ignored, probably because his secret service duties 
were too important to be laid aside; at any rate, he was not able after 
repeating a first appeal to get a place in the Scottish custom service. 19 
A like fate befell his plea of June 10, 1707, when he asked for an account- 
ant's post, 20 and so Defoe waited on unsatisfied until finally, in February 
1708, Harley lost political control without having made any public 
recognition of his work in the north. Harley was able, however, to have 

14 John Bell to Robert Harley, January 4, 1706-07: ibid., IV, 378. 

15 On December 9, 1706, he spent six guineas in circulating 2,500 pamphlets in the 
neighborhood of Glasgow. Ibid., IV, 367. 

"Ibid., IV, 444. 

17 Portland MSS, IV, 450. 

18 Mr. T. Bateson has summarized Defoe's receipts as being "about £100" from 
October to December 1706, and adds that he was "almost without supply" in 1707. 
The correspondence in the Portland MSS warrants a somewhat more definite statement. 
Mr. Bateson's article, "The Relations of Defoe and Harley," Eng. Hist. Rev., XV 
(1900), carries the story down only to 1710 and does not contain all the data given 
above. 

19 Portland MSS, IV, 377 and 412. Letters of January 2 and May 21, 1707. 
™IMd., IV, 418. 



DEFOE AND THE EARL OF OXFORD 51 

the Review kept up under Godolphin's direction, a service that Defoe 
gratefully acknowledged. 21 

Having had but slight encouragement from either his old or new 
master, he set out from London soon after Godolphin took control of 
affairs, in order to renew his secret service work in Scotland. He had 
been treated never with liberality, often with but scant courtesy, and the 
inducements to fidelity were not great. The government still con- 
tinued its policy of concealing its connection with the Review and its 
editor, and assisted him only when prosecution seemed to threaten the 
existence of the journal. In this respect Godolphin followed Harley's 
example, as appears from a secret report on the Review submitted to 
George Tilson, Esq., by a government spy. The investigator, who 
signed himself W. E. Borrett, began his report of November 16, 1708, as 
follows: "Upon Enquiry, I find that M r Defoe the supposed Author of 
the Review is in Scotland, M r Matthews who lives about little Brittain 
is the Printer, and M r Morphew who lives near Stationers hall is the 
Publisher thereof. M r Attorney Generall desires, that M r Secretary 
would be pleased to order the S d Printer and Publisher to attend at yo r 
Office to answer that matter, and if M r Secretary pleases, I will attend 
at the same time to settle that affair." 22 . . . The report continues 
with definite plans for getting further information regarding the manage- 
ment of Defoe's paper. Clearly Godolphin concealed from his subor- 
dinates the actual facts, so that they unwittingly investigated the char- 
acter of a political journal that was at the time under constant direction 
from the state offices. Godolphin kept encouraging Defoe to write 
for the administration, though nothing shows the nature of his promises 
or actual performances. It appears, however, that Defoe applied to the 
Earl of Sunderland for assistance as well as to Godolphin. 23 Sunderland 
gave him some help, 24 but neither looked after him in a systematic 
fashion. In spite of this, the deceptive tone of Defoe's occasional letters 
suggests that he got substantial gifts from both and thus did not fare 
badly. 

21 Ibid. IV, 562-3. 

22 S. P. Dom. Anne, Vol. 10, fol. 41. 

23 On May 20, 1708, Defoe wrote Sunderland from Edinburgh thanking him for 
some favor. To this he added a request that all account of the affair be kept from 
Godolphin for fear it might "cool the inclination my Lord Treasure] r has been pleased 
to express of doing something for me." Hist. MSS Comm. Eighth Report, 48. 

24 On May 25 Defoe repeated his request to Sunderland regarding secrecy, with 
the ingenious plea that he was fearful lest each patron might neglect him through 
thinking that the other was giving him funds. Ibid., 49a. 



52 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

When at length it became evident that the Whig power was breaking, 
Defoe was quick to trim his sails to meet the change. His Review 
became more moderate in tone as he gradually did all that he could to 
prepare for a return to the Tories. When he had changed sufficiently 
the style of his articles to recommend him to his old master, he wrote 
to Harley, and his congratulatory letter upon the favorable turn of events 
paved the way for a return. The proposal made in this letter of July 17, 
1710, was entirely pleasing to the new favorite of Queen Anne, and soon 
after that date Defoe entered upon his most distinguished period of 
party service. Under Harley's patronage he was freed from restrain- 
ing counsel far more than during earlier years, and so realized a more 
gratifying independence. Neither Bolingbroke nor Swift, the directors 
of the Tory press, seems to have had any dealings with Defoe, and Lord 
Oxford (i. e., Harley) put little restraint upon him. From 1710 until 
1714 he seems to have written his Review and Mercator very much as he 
pleased. 

During these last years of Queen Anne's reign he continued to make 
secret service journeys while keeping up the regular issues of the Review. 
He also acted as Oxford's advisor in matters of trade. The weight of 
his opinion is evident to one who reads Defoe's correspondence bearing 
on state affairs. For example, on July 17, 1711, he sent Oxford a "short 
general" concerning a new scheme for promoting trade in the South 
Seas. 25 The form of expression proves that the plan which later was put 
into actual use, was originally Defoe's. The Portland Manuscripts con- 
tain many other documents of similar sort, all proof of Defoe's importance 
as secret counselor. Publicly through the essays appearing in the 
Review and the Mercator he defended the peace plans of the administra- 
tion. His only noteworthy difficulty with the Whigs arose over an anti - 
Jacobite tract 26 that gave them ground for a charge of treason. Defoe 
was arrested in May 1713 on their charges, but Oxford promptly secured 
his release; furthermore, some months later he got Defoe a general 
pardon from past offences as an effectual protection against all such 
attacks in time to come. 27 After this flurry of excitement he continued 
undisturbed in the service of the administration until the end of Queen 
Anne's reign. 

26 The letter is included in E. S. Roscoe's biography, Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, 
as from the Harley Papers, III, 50. 

26 Reasons against the Succession of the House of Hanover, 1713. 

27 Abel Boyer, in his Reign of Queen Anne (p. 658), commented on Defoe's release: 
"About this time [October 17, 17131 it was publickly declared, that the Queen had 



DEFOE AND THE EARL OF OXFORD 53 

In the course of his regular duties under Oxford's administration 
Defoe accomplished a few services that entitled him to large reward 
As noted previously, the 1710-1714 period was his time of greatest 
political importance. Of all his acts then nothing so distinguished him 
as his own writing, but he also engaged in political intrigues similar in 
purpose to Addison's devices against Pope. Defoe instituted a plan 
tha was carried through successfully by the Tory leaders after he had 
made clear the method to be pursued; his part in the expulsion of Steele 
from the House of Commons was secret but none the less important 

nl ^TlT- n ° W that hC Was amon S the first to fa thom the new 
plans of the Whigs m 1714 and to see the motive behind Steele's appear- 
ance as a candidate for parliament. On February 19, he wrote urging 
Oxford to prevent the addition of Steele's oratorical power to his existing 
influence as a journalist,- and on March 10 he sent on specific evidence 
upon which Steele could be prevented from holding a seat in the House » 

and Z7 »T^ ed 6XCerptS fr ° m the Guardian ' the ^glishman, 

and the Cruts all bound together and labelled "Collection of Scandal " 

Id'th^f T^ n f ^ Stat6mentS fUmishing gr ° Und for a triaI > 
and thus fortified Oxford immediately took active measures towards 

an expulsion 1 wo days after receiving Defoe's evidence he presented 

through his brother, formal charges against Steele. The charges w re 

EBff ^ TOneS - — d ^ « * ^ «* * P^-n- 

toJt S "7 SSf t° UtCOme ° f the tHal must be c ^ed a personal vic- 
or> for Defoe. His warning had made the Tories realize their danger 

act1on ,S Th Wr embling ° f "*"** ^^ the mcM * for P™* 
°;j h t ^ Were defeat ^ - a sharply defined party contro- 

oa L?1 ' ^ m ° St C ° mpetent S P eaker > was disqualified from 

parliamentary service. The loss of this test trial had an effect upoT 
Whig : « : ivity throughout the remainder of Queen Anne's reign. ? 

Shortly after this success Defoe devised another subtle plan for 
weakening the Whigs. This time he directed his attack agabst the 
^j^±^^ journal for the opposition. H ifptan 

28 Portland MSS, V, 384. 
19 Ibid., \\ 392-4. 



54 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

was to involve the paper in a state prosecution for seditious libel and 
also to discredit it completely among its conservative supporters. Defoe 
had long sought to destroy the Flying Post, and had made the topic 
subject of a special letter to Oxford under date of March ll. 30 Shortly 
after this his opportunity appeared, and he wrote to Oxford as follows: 
" ... It has been long that I have been endeavouring to take off 
the virulence and rage of the Flying Post. Mr. Moore has been witness 
to the design and to some of the measures I took for it, which were unsuc- 
cessful. After some time an occasion offered me which I thoughtmight 
be improved effectually to overthrow it. The old author Redpath 
quarrelled with his printer Hurt, and takes [sic] the paper from him; Hurt 
sets up for himself and applies to a certain author to write it for him, but 
being not able to get anyone to publish it, he lost ground. 

"It occurred to me that to support Hurt would be the only way to 
bring the paper itself out of Redpath's hand, and to this intent I frequently 
at his request sent him paragraphs of foreign news, but declined med- 
dling with home matters. The publisher received a letter very unhappi- 
ly for me, and finding it full of reflections desired it to be softened, as he 
calls it, and sends it to me. I left out, indeed, a good deal of scandalous 
stuff that was in it, but added nothing, and sent it back. This they have 
printed from my hand, and I am charged as the author of the letter, 
am sent for by a warrant and held to bail. The use they make of this is 
that I have insulted Lord Anglesey, and that your Lordship has employed 
me to do so. God knows that all I did in it was to prevent their printing 
several scandalous reflections on his Lordship, which I therefore struck 
quite out, and wrote the rest over again. I humbly beg your intercession 
with Lord Anglesey in this matter, assuring him that I never knew any- 
thing in this matter other than the above, and did nothing in it but with 
design to serve his Lordship. . ." 31 

Defoe's Flying Post and Medley appeared on July 27, 1714, with the 
results stated in his letter. Though convicted for libel the following 
July, he escaped sentence by agreeing to give service to the new Whig 
administration, and so, as before, he purchased his release from prison 
at the price of service as a party journalist. Oxford by then was out of 
office and the Tory rule completely broken. Consequently Defoe felt 
free to make the best terms possible by joining the Whigs, even though 
the decision meant another complete change in his political opinions. 

30 Portland MSS, V, 395. 

31 August 31, 1714. Portland MSS, V, 492. 



DEFOE AND IHE KARL OF OXFORD « 

n,n^ '"IT" k Hl mm A hC ^ begU " '° diS P° Se 0f ^ to the Whig 

dutv hi 7 y , SUSP ' Ci0nS whUe in Scotland ™ «** service 

S' ir e Y'7 y uT ected of having written a «*« ^pue« 

ori 2 , ,7° '"? t0 ° Xf ° rd the Publication of this and the 

icols AlflaMs, another anf-nnnisterial pamphlet, Defoe showed great 
concern and asserted that the Atalantis Major was certainly the work o 
an Englishman." Whether or not this solicitude was merely 7 use 
m.en ded t0 cl k his own par( h ^ f ronl Mr Lee' 

evidence" to have had a hand in it. Perhaps Oxford's suspidon wa 

ztlz: "r B ^ if this fot unf — ***£££££. 

to the ffeci 'thafn^f n< " haW0 ™ rf0 <"- d ' a '« charges made openly 
to the ehect that Defoe was writing for the Protestant Post-Boy, a very 
ho stile opposition journal. Whig pamphleteers made party capital out 

irirt 1 ; "" " ' hat 0rfOTd TOuld — 'y hav'e mis'd 
the currc t tales. The fact that this astute politician gave no sign is 

hereafter Such distrust might easily have been the cause for his sub- 
sequent failure to treat Defoe liberally. 

thaJtW of rY/ ?*°f? **"*** * m0re "^ distinguishable 

until H.4 1 , f '" Urmg thC tW ° years of Wh « ruk - F ™» 17W 
unt,l 1714 several letters were written that show what were Defoe's 
ap P rox lmate receipts from the Tory government. These acLnts in 

ml "v Z y S T ment that he TOS " adored and caress ' d ^ that 
might, Statesman, who gave him, as that Mercenary said himself to 

647-« C ' GU "°' WhS De F0C ' '° 1Eobort Harl< * ">«=• 26 - "i<>. PorUand MSS, IV, 

Th» l Ml ' L f' S eV *" Ce is impUed in thc statement made in his Ufe of Defoe 1177 

sha d P ■ LrthiTrrrf lDei : e] ? the viiest and an am ^ see 

the next » ' q^ ^f an 'WW* Jf «, one Day and a Rank Whig 

profligate Author £ g ^ ^ PampWet a PP ears the statement: "This 

IWns of £ st ;no g h P a r d OStltUl : d "V* *" =" t0 Write ° n b ° th Si ^ •— 

own selve /to p r o S ecut ht f"r tee c ^ "^ ° f Han ° Ver ' resolv ' d » f ** 
, io prosecute him fot some Scurrilous Reflections that way." 



56 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

the value of £1,000 in one Year"; 35 yet they prove that Oxford was con- 
siderate. 

After offering to serve the Tory administration, 36 Defoe soon began 
work, and almost as promptly he asked for payment. On August 2, 
1710, he showed uneasiness because money was not forthcoming imme- 
diately, but he courteously assured the Treasurer that he fully relied 
upon previous promises. 37 On September 2 he wrote from Scotland that 
he had spent large sums "for expensive travelling, maintaining useful 
intelligence abroad, family subsistence, and a little clearing of encumber- 
ing circumstances." He noted further how costly had been the installa- 
tion of a general "system of intelligence" over all Britain. 38 Three days 
later he wrote thanking Oxford for favors "daily" received. 39 Again, on 
September 21, 1710, he acknowledged gratefully a notification that Her 
Majesty had "directed the affair" in his favor, 40 and he obscurely men- 
tioned Ihe same matter in a letter of September 29. 4X No evidence indi- 
cates the nature of the royal grant to Defoe, but the amount involved 
was surely of some moment, inasmuch as it required the Queen's con- 
sideration. His payments evidently increased, for excepting an 
acknowledgment of twenty pounds 4 ' 2 and occasional directions as to ways 
of sending him money, he made no further reference to such matters 
during the remainder of 1710. 

It was but natural that, upon his return to London, Defoe should 
summarize the results of his journey. Such a report was submitted on 
February 13, 1711. In this general account he wrote: "A long and 
expensive journey, family importunities and all the et ceteras that make 
a dependent always importunate — these forced me, in spite of blushes, 
to remind you of the usual period being passed of that relief, which by 
whatever hand I received it, was originally owing to your goodness." 43 

36 John Oldmixon, History of England., etc. (1735), III, 519. 

38 Defoe to [Robert Harley], July 17, 1710. Portland MSS, IV, 550-51. 

37 Ibid., IV, 562. 

38 Ibid., IV, 581-82. 

39 Ibid., IV, 584-590. 

40 Ibid., IV, 597. 

41 Ibid., IV, 602-3. 

42 This letter (Portland MSS, IV. 631) was sent from Edinburgh on November 21. 
1710. Sums of money were being sent Defoe then under the name of "C. Guilot," 
and were consigned to various addresses. At other times he used the name of 
"Mr. Goldsmith." 

« Portland MSS, IV, 659. 



DEFOE AND THE EARL OF OXFORD 57 

Six days later, on February 19, he wrote another letter that shows 
Oxford to have responded promptly to this request by sending some 
amount not "part of her Majesty's appointment." 44 The indications 
are that temporarily he supported Defoe from his private purse or from 
his own secret service funds. 

Thereafter payments ceased for some time. In his letters of Feb- 
ruary 26 and March 2, Defoe made no mention of money matters, 
probably because Oxford's gift was not yet exhausted. On June 19, 
however, he wrote complaining that the pension promised by the Queen 
had not been paid, adding that Oxford had "had the goodness" to supply 
"the first quarter." 45 Here it becomes difficult to determine the precise 
meaning of the letter of June 19. In mentioning "her Majesty's ap- 
pointment" he was referring either to the settled pension promised in 
Godolphin's 1707 letter — of which nothing further was said after Oxford 
relieved Defoe — or to the new appointment referred to in their recent 
correspondence. In support of the theory that Defoe was referring back 
to Oxford's present of a hundred pounds in 1707, we have Defoe's state- 
ment in his Appeal to Honour and Justice'. "As for consideration, pension, 
gratification, or reward, I declare to all the world I have had none, except 
only that old appointment which her majesty was pleased to make me 
in the days of the ministry of my lord Godolphin." 46 As further evidence 
one has the fact that in that year Defoe's thanks for Oxford's hundred 
pounds were given after his pleas to Godolphin had proved futile. The 
pension had then been promised, but as usual during Queen Anne's reign 
payment was not made promptly. If, therefore, Oxford's advance of a 
hundred pounds can be considered as the "first quarter" on Defoe's 
account with the Treasury, one may assume his salary from November 
1707 to August 1714 to have been four hundred pounds a year. 

Against such a conclusion is the fact that on September 29, 1710, 
Defoe was likewise expecting favor at the hands of the Queen. Never- 
theless on February 13, 1711, he referred to the "usual period" of pay- 
ment as past, quite evidently meaning some rate of payment established 
before Oxford on February 19 sent the amount "not part of her Majesty's 
appointment." It hardly seems probable that Defoe, in February 
1711, would have referred to his quarterly payment as "usual" if the 
Treasury warrant dated back no further than October 1 of the preceding 
year. From his letter of September 29 it is clear that before that date 

"Ibid., IV, 662. 

« Ibid., V, 13. 

" Defoe, Works, II, 184. 



58 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

nothing definite had come from Oxford's dealings with the Queen; so 
that even had quarterly payments been made in advance upon a warrant 
issued October 1, only one payment could have been overdue in February 
1711. The improbability of the assumption that Oxford's present of 
February 19 was made in lieu of a quarterly allowance is increased by 
Defoe's moderation in his letter of acknowledgment. A gift of one 
hundred pounds would have called forth profuse thanks similar to that 
expressed in his letter of November 28, 1707, from Edinburgh, when 
Oxford had advanced such a sum out of his own funds. 

The necessary deduction from these details is that in September 1710 
Oxford attempted to get a new grant for Defoe. Perhaps it was to be 
merely a renewal of that obtained in 1707 from Godolphin, which, on 
Defoe's statement, was the only one made him at any time. At least 
it was not a grant that Defoe was willing to acknowledge in 1715, when 
it was to his advantage to praise Godolphin as a recommendation to the 
new Whig administration. All indications are that in 1710 Defoe was 
expecting only a renewal of the warrant made in 1707, that Godolphin 
had actually obtained for him his only Treasury warrant at Queen 
Anne's hands, and that throughout the period Oxford had shown a per- 
sonal interest by advancing or giving such sums as Defoe needed from 
time to time. On such assumptions the reference in Defoe's letter of 
June 19, 1710, to Oxford's kindness in advancing the first quarterly pay- 
ment on his warrant, goes back to the hundred pounds paid on Novem- 
ber 28, 1707, when Oxford had actually met the delayed obligation of 
the state Treasury. It seems reasonable, therefore, to assert that from 
that date until the death of Queen Anne, Defoe received with fair regular- 
ity the salary of four hundred pounds a year. From a letter to Oxford, 
under date of July 26, 1714, 47 it is certain that payments were continued 
until the end of the reign, for Defoe acknowledged at that time the 
payment of the "usual sum" on his "particular account." This and 
other references to payments from the Treasury on Defoe's warrant 
prove that from 1708 to 1715 Defoe received regular payment from 
state funds as well as frequent gifts from Oxford's private purse. 48 

47 Portland MSS, V, 475. 

48 Volume five of the Portland Manuscripts contains several slight references to 
Defoe's income in addition to those noted. On July 13, 1711 (V, 44-45), he ack- 
nowledged Oxford's prompt response to his appeal of June 19. Also, on August 18, 
1712 (V, 212-14), he wrote somewhat rudely because two quarters were then overdue, 
but admitted that Oxford had always made him "large allowance." Again, on April 
14, 1713 (V, 282), after his release from jail on eighty pounds bail, Defoe wrote, "This 
s the third time I am rescued from misery and a jail by your generous and uncommon 
oodness." 



DEFOE AND THE EARL OF OXFORD 59 

In reviewing the entire matter of Defoe's dealings with successive 
party leaders, one finds a good measure of justice in the acts of Godolphin 
and Oxford. Both of them met their obligations to the extent of keeping 
Defoe in funds for his secret journeys. Next, delays in payment upon 
his Treasury warrant cannot be counted entirely to their discredit. It 
is quite clear that charges of insincerity ought not to be made too freely 
against the ministry, for an element always to be considered in regard to 
state payments during Queen Anne's reign is the notorious laxity of the 
Treasury. Many men, like Swift's friend Harrison, obtained appoint- 
ments but failed to get their regular payments. It is true that Godolphin, 
as early as 1703, turned Defoe over to the direction of his co-worker, 
with the remark, "What you propose about Defoe may be done when 
you will, and how you will": 49 but he did not thereupon release himself 
from all obligation in the matter, and perhaps did whatever could be 
done to promote Defoe's affairs with the Queen. Oxford, evidently 
enough, gave many proofs of his good will during the period preceding 
1707. Whatever dissatisfaction with Defoe's actions may have deterred 
him after 1710 from making permanent provision for his secret agent, 
he at least concurred in the plans under which Defoe was paid from the 
state Treasury. He clearly discerned the value of the services rendered 
and paid moderately well. As Oxford was the first political leader to 
promote aggressively the use of party journals, he must be credited 
with having made possible for writers a new form of profitable service. 
For the time being this new mode of support amounted to little more 
than an exchange of private patronage for the less personal attachment 
to a political group; yet this was in a measure release from an abnormal 
state of dependence and a turn towards the fuller freedom of popular 
support based solely upon literary merit. 

Defoe himself revealed the motives prompting him during these years 
in his Appeal to Honour and Justice, Tho' it be of His Worst Enemies. 
This comprehensive defence of his actions deserves more recognition as 
a historical document than many with a fixed belief in Defoe's dishonesty 
have granted it hitherto. Many statements in its pages previously sus- 
pected are now substantiated by the Oxford correspondence, while the 
recollection of Defoe's anonymity in political circles ought likewise to 
win consideration for one unable to defend himself properly against false 
charges. 

In this pamphlet Defoe recounted his attempts to moderate party 
and factional strife. "Party moderation" was a political tenet that he 

49 Lord Godolphin to Robert Harley, September 26, 1703: Portland MSS, IV, 68. 



60 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

and Oxford held in common— possibly because the peer took his hint 
from Defoe. He also reviewed his theories of trade, which now are 
recognized as deserving serious consideration in any study of England's 
foreign policy during the century. His personal dealings with others 
arc also presented with fair accuracy; so far as existing documents afford 
proof in the matter, Defoe seems to have stated honestly in what measure 
he was under obligation to the Queen and to her successive leaders. 
To relieve Oxford from the common charge of having subsidized him for 
ends apart from government service, Defoe wrote: "It is a general sug- 
gestion, and is affirmed with such assurance, that they tell me it is vain 
to contradict it, that I have been employed by the Earl of Oxford, late 
Lord Treasurer, in the late disputes about public affairs, to write for him, 
or, to put it into their own particulars, have written by his directions, 
taken the materials from him, or by other persons from him, by his order, 
and the like; and that I have received a pension, or salary, or payment 
from his lordship for such services as these. . . In answer to the 
charge, I bear witness to posterity, that every part of it is false and 
forged. . . In all my writing, I ever capitulated for my liberty to 
speak according to my own judgment of things; I ever had that liberty 
allowed me, nor was I ever imposed upon to write this way or that 
against my judgment by any person whatsoever." 50 

But Defoe made a much more significant statement concerning his 
settled theories of party government and his own duty to the state. 
He continued in a passage that characterizes his party activity through- 
out the Queen Anne period: "It occurred to me immediately, as a 
principle for my conduct, that it was not material to me what ministers 
her majesty was pleased to employ; my duty was to go along with every 
ministry, so far as they did not break in upon the constitution, and the 
laws and liberties of my country; my part being only the duty of a sub- 
ject. . ." It is not possible to believe, in the face of some very appar- 
ent facts, that Defoe kept to this high level of patriotism, but many acts 
in his life support his assertions. He was not so devoted as Swift and 
others who, having changed parties, thereafter honestly restricted them- 
selves to working for that side alone; Defoe worked for both at once. 
Yet he was as open in his dealings as were the party leaders employing 
him. Moreover, in advancing his theories of trade he showed sincere 
desire to benefit his country, and even under a Tory administration he 
clung to many of his principles as a Whig. 

■: Appeal to Honour and Justice, etc., (1895 ed.), II, 181-83. 



CHAPTER V 
PARTY JOURNALS AND JOURNALISTS FROM 1710 TO 1714 

GENERAL CONDITION OF ENGLISH JOURNALISM BEFORE 1710 — THE London 

Gazette — journals founded under the tory ministry — defoe's 
Review and the Examiner — minor tory journalists — matthew 
prior — opposition offered by the whigs — the Whig Examiner 
and Medley — the Flying Post — Steele's Guardian and English- 
man — MINOR WHIG JOURNALS — THE STAMP ACT OF 1712 — EFFECT 
OF PARTY INFLUENCE UPON JOURNALS AND WRITERS. 

The last part of Queen Anne's reign is known among literary histori- 
ans as the time when the periodical essay became an established type in 
English literature. Any mention of this form of writing brings to mind 
Addison and Steele, and their Tatler and Spectator essays; but perhaps 
few except the historians recall anything regarding the other periodicals 
produced within the same period. Such oblivion for the other journals 
is to be expected for writings deficient in enduring qualities. As the 
Queen Anne periodical was distinctively an occasional production, it 
has quite properly fallen completely out of common recollection. It 
is, however, quite essential to realize that the Tatler and the Spectator 
were not the only journals published between 1710 and 1714, to attract 
general interest: many others, lacking the literary merits of these two, 
still held important places in public regard because of their relation to 
current events. 

Some notion of the number of periodicals then in circulation can be 
secured from William Lee's account. 1 From his lists it appears that 
forty-five journals, some copies of which are still preserved, were begun 
in England between 1712 and 1715. Of this number four were printed 
outside of London, seventeen of the remaining forty-one were purely 
political, and twenty-four contained either literary essays or general 
news. Defoe estimated 2 that a little earlier, in 1711, 200,000 copies of 
established journals went weekly to subscribers throughout England. 
From such a sweeping statement as the last, one cannot assert confi- 
dently that the production of periodicals was a flourishing industry; the 
information is too vague for that. One must, however, conclude that 

■Win, Lee, "Periodical Publications during the Twenty Years 1712-1732." 
Notes and Queries, Third Series, IX, 72-75. 
2 The preface of the Review, vol. VII. 



62 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

England had many substantial journals before Addison and Steele won 
popular favor. 

In a few instances the sales of a journal can be determined with fair 
accuracy — with enough to prove others besides the Tatler and Specta- 
tor self-supporting. The British A polio, 3 a paper now utterly forgotten, 
was one of these successful enterprises. In 170 1 ) the editor announced to 
the subscribers that conditions then warranted an increase to three 
issues a week at the old rate. He added that a Christmas amusement 
had originally been planned for all subscribers, but that later the intended 
"Consort of Musick" had been dropped. This was made necessary, he 
wrote, because "the Number of our Subscribers now is so large, that 
neither the Playhouse, nor any of the usual Halls for Musick, will near 
contain them, which renders it absolutely impracticable." 

Clearly the British Apollo was a flourishing paper in 1709. More 
exact \nooi of success in such an enterprise exists in an account book of 
the London Gazette, which in 1710 was being published three times weekly. 
This publisher's memorandum, preserved among the State Papers of 
Queen Anne's reign, is a record of receipts and sales of the six numbers 
issued during the first half of June 17 10. 4 The first live issues contained 
uniformly 8,500 copies; the sixth, 8,250. Each time 1,087 papers were 
given away, and the average number sold amounted to 5,402 copies. 
£58. 10s. from advertisements added to the sales receipts made up a 
total of £103. 6s. 6d. for the six issues. Expenditures for printing 
amounted to £40. 12s., and Richard Steele, Gazetteer, was paid his half- 
monthly salary of I'll. 12s. After all other general expenses had been 
met, there were left £24. 5s. 8d. for the Earl of Sunderland, Secretary of 
State for the Southern Department, and an equal amount for the Secre- 
tary for the Northern Department. As one of the two conductors of the 
Gazette, Sunderland was expected to pay with his share all expenses 
arising in the south of England for correspondence. 5 After doing so, he 

3 The British Apollo; or Curious Amusements for the Ingenious. To which are added 
the most Material Occurrences Foreign and Domestiek. November 18-23, 1709. Three 
volumes totalling lour hundred and seven issues as well as twenty issues of a fourth 
volume are in the Hope Collection. These appeared between March 13, 170S, and 
May 11, 1711. Burn, Catalogue, etc., p. 15. 

4 5. P. Dom. Anne, vol. 16, fol. 39. 

6 He distributed his money a* follows: to Mr. Paizant, £3, 17s; Messrs. Bo[rr]ett, 
Brocas, and Whitaker, XI. 18s. 6d. each; Mr. Newcomer, £1. 4s.; Messrs. Smith and 
Marlow, los. each; the office cleaner, 10s.; miscellaneous, £2. 10s. He then held 
unspent £8. 15s. 2d. 



PARTY JOURNALS AND JOURNALISTS 63 

still held £8. 15s. 2d. as his profit from a half share in the issues for the 
two weeks — a good net return. 

These records for the London Gazette confirm the evidence of pros- 
perity seen in the announcement of the British Apollo for November 
18-23, 1709. Both journals demonstrated that the public was ready to 
support such enterprises before the days when Steele and Addison gained 
popularity. The law of supply and demand was operating well enough 
in 1709 to make journalism a profitable venture. Without actual records 
one would not have believed the Gazette self-supporting, for it was then, 
as it is now, a distinctively government publication and so likely to be 
subsidized. A political journal was apt to have either state or private 
backing and its circulation was often stimulated artificially. Free 
distribution was so common, that the public may have ignored utterly 
a periodical with a long "subscription list." On this account one can- 
not draw conclusions regarding popular taste from facts concerning the 
number of papers published; he can use such data only as proof that 
party organizations were at the time exceedingly strong. 

It will be recalled that William Lee listed seventeen out of forty-one 
newspapers as being purely political. All of these were published in 
London and appeared first between 1712 and 1715. Many others, such 
as Defoe's Review and the Flying Post, had been running for several 
years, so that by the addition of old papers one would increase Lee's list 
considerably. Another account, similar to the one mentioned, appeared 
in the Examiner for April 17-24, 1712, and in this instance only political 
papers were considered. 6 It seems that then six Whig journals were 
appearing weekly. The Daily Courant was issued six times a week; the 
Protestant Post-Boy, the Flying Post, and the Postman, three times 
each; the Observator and the Medley, each twice. Opposing this total of 
nineteen separate issues, the Tories supported only the Postboy, with 
its three issues weekly, and the Examiner, a weekly. The writer's com- 
ment that "certainly their zeal must be greater than ours, or their Pay 
much better," was a plea to the Tories for more generous assistance. 
The chief value of the list to-day lies in its proof of the contemporary 
belief in party journals for political purposes. 7 

•Vol. HI, No. 21. 

7 Nothing can be deduced from the Examiner account except that newspapers 
were considered highly serviceable in politics. The list is incomplete; since Defoe's 
Tory journal, the Review, is not mentioned, surely others of less importance may 
also be wanting in this statement. 



Ol PARTS P »] [TICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

In order to determine what valuation was pul upon nev luring 

Oxford's ministry, one must study the records of all part) ' ions. 

This involves a review of all available information regarding the Whig 
and Tory writers concerned, particularly of such detail n mstrate 

political patro been a source of substantial support. Oilier 

matters of interest in such an examination will be proofs of collusion 
between writers and politicians in order to cripple their rivals, evidences 
of persecution, and facts that show why many writers changed com- 
pletely their style of production. All such details should have a bearing 
upon the political importance of the journals. 

At the beginning of Oxford's ministry no political journal matched 
Defoe's Review in effectiveness. With changes of policy suited to the 
course of events, this journal had been appearing under a similar name 
since February 19, 1 704. When Godolphin fell from power, the Review 
became at once the property of Oxford's party, and Defoe in character- 
fashion set about popularizing their measures. When finally peace 
with France had become a reality, the Review gave way to a new admin- 
istration journal, the Mercator. 9 With this Defoe labored to establish in 
favor the new commercial treaty with France, a service that he continued 
until the end of Oxford's term of power. 1 -' His work on the Mer color com- 
pleted a continuous service in the government party extending from 
17ll> to the close of 1714. It is true that he was not wholly faithful, 
yet perhaps no one will ever determine precisely what evil fortune led 
him to write against Oxford as well as for him during the last years of 
this service. At least his Tory writings were of great value to that 
party. His worst enemies at that time credited him with marked 
ability, particularly in matters of trade, and to-day no question is raised 

8 The French negotiators signed the Utrecht treaties on March 31-ApriI 11, 1713. 

The last issue of the Review came out on June 11, 1713. Mercator appeared three 
times each week from May 26, 1713, to July 20. 1714. The idea of a trade journal 
had been in Defoe's mind long before the Mercator appeared. In the Review for July 8, 
1710 (VII, No. 45) he had announced his plans for such a paper and had asked for 
advance subscriptions. 

' Defoe professed most disinterested motives for this service. The closing 
lines of the last Mercator (June 17-20, 1714) were: "As no selfish design has 
been carried on, so no Fee, or Payment, or Reward has been the Motive, nor have 
the Persons who have been concerned in it received any. The Party who have opposed 
the Mercator, have endeavored to fix the work upon several Hands, and at last upon 
one, with an universal Consent, who, however they have not been Opposed, yet has 
much wrong done him in the Charge: but he bears it, knowing the Truth will clear 
up the Case at Last." 



PARTY JOURNALS AND JOURNALISTS 65 

as to the high merit of his discussions of trade policy in his Review and 
Mercalor. 

The Review, however, could not serve completely the requirements 
of Oxford's new party. Its tone was too conservative, too free from 
abuse for the controversial style of the day. Consequently, as a new 
means of reaching the public, Bolingbroke established the Examiner.™ 
This journal was founded as an organ of abuse in order to offset the vio- 
lent attacks of the opposition writers. From the first the Examiner 
dealt directly with current measures and with the actions of individuals, 
in a style rarely displayed in the Review. For such work several writers 
were needed. Swift became the central figure in the group soon formed 
as an editorial staff, and in conjunction with Bolingbroke he worked 
to draw others into the service. 

As the Tory leaders began forming the editorial staff of the Examiner, 
party matters began to affect vitally the lives of many competent journa- 
lists. The writers realized that a new premium was being put upon their 
services. Some tried to keep in favor with both Whigs and Tories: 
some openly asked one party or the other for patronage. 

It seems that the first to seek Oxford's favor was Mrs. Delia Manley, 
a satirist of recognized merit. In May 1710, when Oxford apparently 
was rising rapidly in the Queen's favor, Mrs. Manley offered her aid to 
the party. With her petition she sent proof of her ability— satirical 
sketches of Oxford's political opponents— and urged upon him the 
necessity for prompt action. 11 The dexterity of her appeal had its 
effect, and Mrs. Manley soon became a member of the Examiner staff. 
The specimens enclosed with her petition and Oxford's previous knowl- 
edge of her famous court satire, The New Alalantis, convinced him that 
she was fully competent for service in the new Tory press organization. 

10 The first issue was that of August 3, 1710: it ran to vol. VI, No. 19, the issue lor 
July 26, 1714. 

11 The letter is instructive in showing how clearly this able journalist appreciated 
the possibilities of Oxford's favor. She wrote : 

"My respect only prevents me from waiting upon you in person (to beg your 
acceptance of this book), lest I be thought to have the honour of your acquaintance, 
which I can only covet, never hope. 

"Your merit, Sir, your great capacity, your zeal for the Church has made me an 
unwarrantable intruder. I willingly devote my ease and interest where my principles 
are engaged, and, if I have the fortune to do some small service, my design is answered. 
I have attempted some faint representations, some imperfect pieces of painting, of the 
heads of that party who have misled thousands. If anything moves your curiosity, I 
will explain what you desire, if you send a note (but without a name) direc ted to me 



<m PART? POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

As Mrs. Manley began her work under Oxford's personal patronage, 
and with Swift as her friend, she obviously was in a position to receive 
generous paymenl for her writings. 'The circumstances make her ease 
an excellent example of the manner in which the ministry treated its 
writers for the Examiner, particularly as the effectiveness of her service is 
above question. Moreover her Letters to Oxford were fortunately fre- 
quent, so that proof of her dependence upon his favor can he obtained 
directly. First of all. these letters demonstrate that the Examiner staff 
did not receive fixed salary payments; the party writer appealed for spec- 
ial favors after giving his services. From the time of her first work for 
the rory party, Mrs. Manley regularly sent in such appeals for money, 
most of them based upon the particular needs of the moment. 1 '- In these 
letters she never raised the question oi a fixed salary, and her few ac- 
knowledgments of gifts prove most conclusively that Oxford was never 
generous. 

Some vague statements in one of these letters show that Oxford was 
not her only source oi aid. The passage in question reads: "Lord 
Masham and Sir Win. YVyndham, two of the society [for the reward- 
ing- of merit]," were commissioned by the rest to desire in their name 
"that a hundred pounds he given Mrs. Manley" 13 for her work. This 
letter seems to show that the Tory nobles systematically dishursed 
funds to their journalists. If so. the payments were perhaps made 
through Bolingbroke's club, an organization devised to provide common 
ground for politicians and writers; 11 or Lord Masham and Sir William 
Wyndham may have controlled the distribution of funds, for both were 
leaders in Tory affairs between 1712 and 1714. Yet without other 
we must believe that the chief payments to writers were made by Oxford 
personally or in some secret fashion at the direction of Bolingbroke. 

Though all the members of the Examiner staff expected some personal 
advantage from the service, not all began work with such mercenary 

and under cover, to Mr. Markham at the Roll and Dragon in Paternoster Row: I 
give the address to none besides, and therefore can't fail to know from what port 
your commands shall come. 

"Net perhaps 1 am all this time offending where I aim and hone to please, the 
uncertainty of t hat gives me to ask your pardon for my presumption and to conclude 
with my profound respect." Portland MSS, IV. 511. 

'ume live of the Manuscripts contains a series of Mrs. Mauley's 

letters to Oxford, all of them cast in the form of petitions. 

« Mrs. Manley to Oxford. June 3, Kit. \£SS, V, 453-4. 

u See page 34 ff. 



PARTY JOURNALS AND JOURNALISTS 67 

intentions as appear in the cases of Mrs. Mauley, Defoe, and Swift. 
These three made direct appeals to Oxford, while other writer waited 
for Bolingbroke or Swift to make the advances. 18 Some, too, wen 
patently Tory in sympathy thai the party could count on their i 
without forma] agreemenl . Among »uch were Matthew Prior, Fra 
Atterbury, Joseph Trapp, Dr. Arbuthnot, and Dr. Freind. Th 
occasional contributors to the Examiner never Identified themselves fully 
with any parly journal, but in other ways rendered good service. Such 
men were belter satisfied with other employments within tin.- j;ift of the 
part v, and consequently never became completely dependent upon uncer- 
tain and irregular payments in return for news writing. 

One writer who began work on the Tory Examiner only under per- 
suasion was William King, who edited i to fifteen of the 
volume. Thereafter his duties were assumed successively by Swift,"' 
Mrs. Manley, and William Oldisworth — the last named having the 
place from December 6, 1711, until the last issue on July 26, 17 14. 17 
These names collectively represent the strength of the Examiner staff 
in its first year. After that time, as will appear, some of the gro 
into more important service for the party; 

upon the patronage extended to all Tory writers. Swift's Journal to 
Stella contains some vague comments upon the rewards granted tl 
writers. According to Swift one would receive as his portion a minor 
church or state appointment, another would receive a small money 
payment. The e entries are so indefinite in most cases that nothing 
can be concluded regarding the amounts paid out annually to the writers 
mentioned. Yet the record of a cash gifl of twenty guineas to William 
Oldisworth is highly important, for the entry shows that the money 
came direct from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 18 Unquestionably 
this payment was but one of the many having such an origin, and had 

u One other writer, Abel Boyer, made a direct appeal to Oxford, but, was unsuc- 
cessful. In a letter of October 7, 1710 (Portland MSS, IV, 615) be asked for Steele's 
old post as gazetteer, but his reputation for Whig partisanship was too great to please 
Oxford and Swift . Both Buffered in consequence of this refusal through Boyer's later 
slanderous attacks. 

ftpei ! [ edited numbers fifteen to forty-six, and Mrs. Manley the further 
issues in the first volume. Swift mentioned the change of editors in his Journal for 
June 7, 1711. 

17 The Examiner of December 18, 1712, announced that in future the days of pub- 
lication would be Monday and Thursday. At the next issue, however, the days were 
changed to Monday and Friday, and the paper kept to this plan thereafter. 

18 Journal to Stella, March 12, 1712-13. 



68 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

not the Treasury records been kept most discreetly they would to-day 
furnish proof of state subsidies to party writers. 19 Another inconse- 
quential Tory writer, Joseph Trapp, was mentioned by Swift 2u as one to 
receive patronage. In 1711 the Tory ministers saw to it that Trapp got 
the chaplainship with the Lord Chancellor of Ireland as a recognition 
of his pamphleteering in behalf of Dr. Sacheverell. 21 A year later, 
having written a serviceable defense of his party, Trapp won Swift's 
help to a chaplainship with Lord Bolingbroke. 22 It seems that he re- 
mained in England enjoying profitable livings and lectureships until his 
death in 1747. 23 

Of the other Examiner writers Matthew Prior was most fortunate in 
his dealings with the Oxford administration. His prominence during 
those years was due to an intimacy with the Tory lords dating back to 
the beginning of Queen Anne's reign. Though he had no part in domes- 
tic politics, the events of his life were determined by the rise of Oxford 
and his friends. Prior began his party work in 1691 as a secretary to 
the Hague embassy, a post granted in recognition of his Whig poem, 
The Hind and the Panther Transversa to the Story of the Country-Mouse 
and the City-Mouse. He thereafter continued to write court verses — 
one noteworthy instance being at the death of Queen Mary 24 — , he had a 
place in King William's household, and also obtained appointments 
abroad. In 1697 he held an important place as secretary to the embassy 
treating for peace at Ryswick, and before 1700 had served as gentleman 
to the king's bed-chamber, and as secretary to the Paris embassy. In 

19 As for Oldisworth, who at the time was editing the Examiner, the records of 
bis life show only that he was ignored after passing his time of usefulness. In 1734 
he died in a debtor's prison, never having risen above the station contemptuously 
referred to by Swift as that of "under spur-leather" on the Examiner. 

20 Ibid., January 7, 1710-11. 

21 Previous to these events of 1709 Trapp had obtained the place of Professor of 
Poetry at Oxford. The appointment and his retention in office from 1708 until 1718 
were due to his Tory zeal. In the Sacheverell case Trapp proved himself worthy of 
further patronage by defending the Tory cleric in his pamphlets, "A Letter out of the 
Country to the Author of the Managers Pro and Con" and "An Ordinary Journey 
no Progress" (1710). In 1711 he served the Tories further by writing "The Character 
and Principles of the present Set of Whigs." 

22 Journal to Stella, July 17, 1712. 

23 Probable political cause appears for his appointment in February 1713-14 to 
the lectureship of four London parishes, in 1714 to a Wiltshire rectory in the grant of 
Lord Peterborough, and in 1732 to Lord Bolingbroke's rectory at Harlington, Middle- 
sex. 

25 To the King. An Ode on his Majesty's arrival in Holland (1695). 



PARTY JOURNALS AND JOURNALISTS 69 

1700, having become an Under-Secretary of state, he went again to the 
French court. During the same year he produced his celebrated Car- 
men Saeculare, a poem that marks the end of Prior's attachment to the 
Whig party. The immediate reward for this final poem praising King 
William was a place as commissioner of trade and plantations. Four 
months of 1701 in parliament completed his service as a Whig. There- 
after Prior rapidly broke off his old friendships in order to begin a more 
promising relationship with Tory politicians, whose ascendancy became 
evident upon the crowning of Queen Anne in 1702. Though marked 
for discipline at the hands of the Whigs for this complete desertion, he 
could complacently endure the loss in 1707 of bis commissionership of 
trade, 25 for he was promptly given new government posts when the 
Tories regained power. Having throughout the years of his public 
work shown real diplomatic ability, he had special reasons in 1709 to 
expect a good Tory post. He had by then greatly strengthened his 
attachments, and his prestige as a writer and politician gave him a rank 
second only to Swift in the esteem of the Tory leaders. 

In 1711, when he began to write for the Examiner so effectively as 
to draw insults from the Whigs, 26 Prior was reproached most severely for 
deserting his old friends. The opinion of Arthur Mainwaring, for exam- 
ple, sums up well the feeling of the Whigs towards him. John Old- 
mixon stated his friend's opinion of their former party ally: "Upon this 
[Prior's writing for the Examiner] he used to express the utmost abhor- 
rence of that man's ingratitude, who had been rewarded by the Whigs, 
from a very mean Beginning, to be a C[om]m[issione]r of Trade and a 
M. P. He got into the House of Commons by the Interest of the Earl 
of Dorset and had not sat there a year before he deserted the Party 
that had prefer'd him, and fell in with those men whose Merit was a 
constant opposition to all King William 's measures to reduce the exor- 
bitant power of France." 27 

The Tories were quite as prompt to recognize Prior's importance by 
granting him government posts. In 1711 he became a commissioner of 
customs, and while holding this sinecure position was sent to Paris as a 
negotiator for peace. The year following he again went abroad for the 
same purpose, and in spite of Queen Anne's expressed disfavor, had 
charge of the English office in Paris until after her death. 28 
26 In the same year he was expelled from the Kit-Kat Club. 

26 Journal to Stella, February 9, 1710-11. 

27 John Oldmixon, Life of Arthur Mainwaring, etc., p. 157. 

28 Queen Anne complained to Oxford (November 19, 1711) that she had "always 
thought it very wrong to send people abroad of meane extraction." Bath MSS, T, 217. 



70 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

On account of his continued employment at foreign courts, Prior 
kept free from journalistic service at home; yet during the months when 
Swift and Bolingbroke were promoting the Examiner, he was an occa- 
sional contributor. His interests were identical with theirs, but his 
established reputation for diplomatic ability put him beyond the influ- 
ences affecting literary men in London. 

The Whig journals of the time give excellent proof of the extraordin- 
ary measures taken to promote Tory journalism. Probably a knowledge 
of the sums being disbursed by the administration led Whig editors to 
lament the deplorable state of their craft. They asserted that free 
speech was no more; that writers were losing their self-respect; and that 
the majority were becoming so involved in party interest as to be com- 
pletely dependent upon influential politicians. The Examiner, being 
the official organ of the ministry and the support of so many writers, 
quite naturally became the chief object of their abuse and vituperation. 
One critic declared that it was "employed ... to display the wis- 
dom and blazen the integrity of her Ministers during that period ; to con- 
trast their skill and virtue with the ignorance and vices of their prede- 
cessors; to whitewash or blacken characters; to state or mis-state facts; 
to varnish men and things, as simulation and dissimulation thought 
proper, and just as the nature and exigencies of their weak and wicked 
administration required. As it was directed at a variety of purposes 
it was played off by a variety of hands, who from highest to lowest were 
venal, who did as they were desired to do, and all wrought, to borrow 
the elegant words of one of their principals like 'scrub hang-dog instru- 
ments of mischief, and under spur-leather,' rather fortiter in re than 
suaviter in modo.' m Among the statements of contemporary writers, 
Addison's comment is important. In The Freeholder for February 24, 
1716, he wrote: "It was ushered into the world by a letter from a sec- 
retary of state, setting forth the great genius of the author, the useful- 
ness of his design, and the great consequences that were to be expected 
from it. It is said to have been written by those among them whom 
they looked upon as their most celebrated wits and politicians, and was 
dispersed into all quarters of the nation with great industry and expense." 
The editor of the Medley was the most outspoken in attacking the 
Examiner. This was to be expected, for his paper had been established 
for this single purpose. No terms of abuse were too gross for him in his 
charges of dishonesty and servility; when considering the lot of a Tory 

29 v. Burn, Catalogue of . . . Early Newspapers, etc., p. 20. 



PARTY JOURNALS AND JOURNALISTS 71 

journalist, the Medley editor stopped at nothing. 30 Such became the 
mode of arguing with a political opponent. 

As circumstantial evidence that the Review and the Examiner depend- 
ed upon state subsidies, it is necessary only to recall how these two 
journals became the property of Oxford's party, how secretly the editorial 
staff was organized for the Examiner, and how abruptly both journals 
disappeared when they had accomplished particular ends. No public 
patronage was sought for either journal through an announcement of 
the editor's name; such an announcement would have been an invitation 
to personal attack. Usually a party journal appeared anonymously 3 * 
and for a limited time. To be sure, the Tory Review and Examiner 
were not of this short-lived sort, but all other evidence indicates their 
dependence upon the party leaders. 

Typical of the journal created for specific purposes, the Tory Taller 
appeared in November 1710 and was discontinued within three months 32 
The Tory Plain Dealer was also short-lived. After appearing for a few 
months during 1712, it disappeared as soon as its issues had accomplished 
a specific end. A General History of Trade was in evidence during 
August and September of 1713, and then gave place to that most effective 
Tory trade journal, Defoe's Mercator. Still another sheet, the Britain 33 
was founded solely to popularize Oxford's plan for an Anglo-Dutch alli- 
ance, but very soon lost its usefulness. Such papers as these, existing 
only for special services, would scarcely have come into being without 
patronage from the state. 34 

* 

30 See particularly the Medley for Monday, June 25, 1711. 

"Defoe however, admitted that he was editor of the Renew by answering an 
abusive article addressed to him personally. This admission appeared in the issue 
or August 5, 1710, and seems to have been his first statement of such sort. Later he 
freely admitted himself the editor, and openly referred to his political foes. See the 
Rmews for May 10, 1711, January 5, 1711-12, and July 26, 1712. It may be interest- 
ing to observe that in Vol. VII, No. 13, issue for April 25, 1710, first appeared the 
following note: "Printed for the Author: and sold by John Baker, at the Black Boy 
,n Pater-Noster Row, 1710." Thereafter this legend was used regularly. ^ 

32 The Tory Taller appeared three times a week from November 27, 1710 unti 

TnlT™ vn,* The / l T Deder was ™ circulation weekly from April 12 until 
July 26, 1712. Burn, Catalogue, etc., pp. 23-24. 

It appeared on Wednesdays and Saturdays until the issue of No. 13 on February 



18, 1713. 



17ii MK r° Wled , ge ° f ^ kter hiSt ° ry ° f the Post B °y> an ^Portant Tory organ in 
1711, is limited to a few chance references. The British Museum contains various 



72 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

These defenders of Tory policies did not go their way unchallenged. 
On September 14, 1710, a few weeks after the first issue of the Examiner, 
there appeared a Whig Examiner. Addison conducted this as a weekly 
journal until October 12; meanwhile the Medley was established to take 
up the work under a more individual name. The discontinuance of the 
Whig Examiner could not have been due to lack of funds, as has been 
implied by a recent writer, 35 for in that case resumption under a new 
name would not have followed at once. Addison's dislike for political 
writing may have led to the change, or it may have seemed best to 
reorganize the management of the journal and to imitate the Examiner 
by employing several writers. Richard Steele, John Henley, Samuel 
Garth, John Oldmixon, and Bishop Kennett contributed articles occa- 
sionally, and Arthur Mainwaring served as editor. 36 

As stated in the first issue of the Whig Examiner, the Whig papers 
were "to give all persons a re-hearing who have suffered under any 
unjust sentence of the Examiner." Many years later John Oldmixon 
stated the facts which led the Whigs to start a new journal in 1710. 
"The old Ministry," he wrote, "saw it was absolutely necessary to set 
up a Paper in Opposition to the Examiner, to dispel the Mists it cast 
before the People's Eyes. . . The learned and ingenious Mr. Main- 
waring was in the strictest Confidence with the old Ministers, who 
knew well his capacity for all literary Productions, and he undertook 
to deal with the Examiner in an opposite Paper [i. e., the Medley]." 37 

copies dated from June 1695 to November 1710, but the journal may not have appeared 
continuously. The name was a common one for periodicals during Queen Anne's 
reign. Abel Eoyer edited a Whig Postboy from 1705 until 1709; then, having quarrelled 
with his fellows, he established Ins shortlived True Postboy, through which he hoped 
to win Tory patronage. Boyer has left some account of the established Tory Postboy, 
which was edited by Abel Roper, in his Political Stole of Grout Britain for 1711, p. 678. 
In his Journal to Stella (March 21, 1711-12) Swift called Roper his "humble 
slave" and later (November 17, 1712) mentioned his own contribution of a malicious 
paragraph to Roper's Postboy. During Oxford's ministry the paper clearly had Tory 
patronage and was subservient to Swift's will. Seme issues of a paper bearing this 
name are preserved in the Burney Collection. They are for the year 1722, and are 
interesting chiefly for their advertisements of contemporary books. 

35 D. Brewster, Aaron Hill, p. 155. 

38 The Medley appeared in weekly issues from October 5, 1710, until August 6, 
1711; then on Mondays and Fridays from' March 3,|l7l2, until forty-five numbers 
had appeared under the new plan. 

37 John Oldmixon, Memoirs of the Press, p. 80. 



PARTY JOURNALS AND JOURNALISTS 73 

With such definite duties before it, the Medley began to annoy the 
Tory leaders. Its corps of writers was much like that of the Examiner 
in one regard ; it was formed of men from more than one class, some of 
whom entered the service without thought of profit. But if the account 
of John Oldmixon is trustworthy, Mainwaring, the editor, was the most 
aggressive writer on the staff and author of nearly all articles that 
appeared during the first year. 38 Apparently he was badly treated by 
the Whigs, 89 in spite of the unusual success of his journal. 

While the Medley was keeping up the contest with the Examiner, 
the Whigs also kept alive their old party organ, the Flying Post. Since 
May 11, 1695, 40 this journal had been in the thick of political warfare, 
and now in the closing years of Queen Anne's reign the first editor, 
George Ridpath, was still at work for his party. Though a journal 
called the Flying Post was almost constantly in circulation until 1730, 
Ridpath's service finally ended in 1713. In that year he was tried and 
convicted of libelling the ministry. 41 At the suggestion of Robert Wal- 
pole 42 Stephen Whately then became editor of the Flying Post, and in 
spite of hindrances the journal kept on opposing the Tories. 43 

In the closing month of 1712, when both Addison and Steele were 
assuming added political duties, the Spectator was discontinued by 
mutual agreement. Revived a year and a half later, it appeared as usual 
from June 18 until December 20, 1714, then under Addison's sole direc- 
tion. Though no explanation was offered for the ending of the original 
Spectator, there are indications of political reasons. Addison was becom- 

38 John Oldmixon, The Life and Posthumous Works of Arthur Mainwaring, Esq., 
pp. 167-203. The tenth issue, according to Oldmixon, contained some verses by- 
Prior, and the twenty-third was entirely Steele's. Occasional helps from other writers 
are noted in the account of Mainwaring's life. 

39 Mainwaring said of the Whig nobles: "[They] did not expect I should make a 
Dependance on the sale only, that I should have £100 down, and £100 a year as long 
as the Paper continued . . . but alas! that emolument I heard of, but never 
received." John Oldmixon, Memoirs of the Press, p. 10. 

40 The Flying Post; or, the Postmaster was issued three times a week. 

41 Ridpath escaped into Holland before sentence could be passed, and returned in 
1714 to get his reward from George I. 

42 See page 29. 

43 At least one of the prosecutions directed at the paper can be charged to Defoe. 
On March 11, 1713-14, he specified as treasonable "the first 26 lines of the second 
column, Flying Post, No. 3,462, March 11," and he urged Oxford to act. (Portland 
MSS, V, 395.) Two months later, on May 19, Bolingbroke published his signed offer 
of a hundred pounds reward for the arrest of Ridpath. (Boyer, Political State, etc., 
V, 378.) 



74 PARTY POLITICS \NP ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

ing more deeply involved in party affairs, and was unwilling to break 
his resolve thai the Spectator should be nonpartisan. Steele chafed 
under the restraint of the tradition, particularly since the loss of his Tory 
employment as Gazetteer had removed his chief hindrance to work for 
the Whigs. He very promptly gave expression to his political opinions. 

On March 12, 1713, he brought out the first number of the Guardian. 
If Swift in former days had grumbled rightly over the Whig tone of 
Steele's Spectators, 4 * he found far greater cause of offence in this new 
daily. Berkeley, Addison, Tickell, and Pope contributed at various 
times iluring the spring and summer, though owing to the increasing 
reputation of the journal as a Whig organ Pope soon withdrew. The 
Guardian had begun its career with Steele's announcement that political 
topics were to be included in his discussions, but Pope's timidity probably 
developed only after the editor began a quarrel with the Examiner. 46 
from that time, the last of April, the articles became more and more 
controversial, until the literary charm of the earlier issues disappeared. 
During these weeks of his controversy with the Examiner Steele passed 
from literary to political pursuits. 

One result of Steele's growing party interest was a relinquishment of 
his place as Stamp Commissioner. On June 4, 1713, he wrote Oxford 
to the effect that a resolution to stand for Parliament at the ensuing 
election would oblige his retirement from a Ton- office. About the same 
time and for the same reason he gave up an annual pension of one hundred 
pounds, which he had received regularly since August 1706. As the 
grant — though from Queen Anne in reward for Steele's services to the 
late Prince George — might appear to be patronage from political oppo- 
nents, he freed himself from this hindrance to his party activity. 

The general recognition of what these steps meant for Steele's future 
is shown by a letter sent to Addison by John Hughes on the day when 
Steele issued his first Englishman. The Guardian, which had been the 
means of invoking its editor completely in political affairs, had played 
a part in bringing him into Parliament as member for Stockbridge, 
Hants — though to be sure the patronage of Whig politicians was chiefly 
responsible for the successful campaign. The election had occurred on 
Annus; 25, and on October 1 appeared the la-: ;. On 

Steele boldly announced through his first Englishman, Bet quel 

iat the present was not a time "to improve 
of men," but to open their eyes to dangers threatening the state. This 

u Jo* y 1,1712. 

for April 28, 1714: No. 41. 



PARTY JOURNALS AND JOURNALISTS 75 

definite proclamation of purpose convinced Hughes, and all Steele's 
friends, that the new journal would be exclusively political. 

Hughes believed that the Guardian should have kept free of party 
matters, and that either Addison or Steele should have felt obliged to 
keep alive the Spectator tradition. 46 But Addison was not at all dis- 
posed to interfere with Steele, or to change his own plans. By that 
time he was himself so concerned with political duties as to neglect his 
former pursuits, and he knew well enough the disposition of his friend. 
In fact, the tone of Addison's reply gives the best evidence that he and 
Steele alike were henceforth to be politicians, not men of letters. 17 

The Englishman appeared regularly three times a week until Febru- 
ary 15, 1714. The day after its discontinuance Steele took his seat in 
the House of Commons, with the purpose to win a better hearing. Pam- 
phlets and speeches before the House were henceforth to be his means 
of reaching the minds of his countrymen. 

The incidents leading to Steele's expulsion from the House are hardly 
related to his journalistic endeavors; they rather form part of his career 
as a politician and pamphleteer. Yet he did not, even when doing 
duty in parliament, for long let his pen lie idle. On February 25, only 
nine days after entering the House, he issued the first number of a new 
periodical called the Lover. Its topics were chiefly social. 48 Steele 
announced that it was his purpose to reform public morals by con- 
trasting tales of proper and illicit love. This temporary return to older 
themes was his only noteworthy defection from the political interest 
boldly professed in his first Englishman. The Lover was soon followed 
by a truly political journal called the Reader.™ Its career was very 
brief and its political influence slight. Perhaps its only value in the 
present connection is as a demonstration of Steele's zeal for aggressive 
attack upon the Examiner. The second issue contained an exact state- 
ment of reasons for the appearance of another Whig paper. Steele 
wrote: "The Title of my Paper may sufficiently explain the Design of it, 

** October 6, 1713. Drake's Essays . . . Illustrative of the Taller, etc., 
pp. 376-78. 

" Addison to Hughes, October 12, 1713, ibid., pp. 378-79. 

48 No. 11 and No. 14 contain satirical accounts of his treatment in the House of 
Commons. The Lover appeared thrice a week and ran to forty issues, being dropped 
on May 27. It contained much matter similar to that in the Spectator, and professed 
an intense desire to reform public morals, but in somewhat dubious fashion. Fre- 
quently Steele seems to tell his salacious story for its interest quite as much as for 
any moral end. 

"The Reader began on April 22, 1714, and ran to nine numbers by May 10. Of 
these Addison wrote two. 



76 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

which is chiefly to disabuse those Readers who are imposed upon by 
the licentious Writers of this degenerate Age. The greatest Offender 
in this Kind is the Examiner. . . . While he is tolerated or any 
other that scribble to the Disadvantage of my Country, I will, in Justice 
to all my Countrymen and Readers, explain their Sophisms, and bring 
them to the Examination of Reason and Justice." 50 The animus here 
is personal, not general. This introductory essay reveals as much 
settled hatred of the Examiner as do Steele's earlier attacks upon the 
Tory party, and in that illustrates how much he had fallen into the 
illogical practices of political controversy. 51 

With this passage from the Reader before us it seems easy to trace 
to its culmination the development of Steele's partisan interest during 
the time of Queen Anne. He at first was content to be a Tory dependent 
and only secretly a sympathizer with the Duke of Marlborough. Slowly 
he recognized the division arising more and more sharply between Whig 
and Tory, until he finally threw over his state appointment in order 
that he might frankly write news articles against the government. Fol- 
lowing the abandonment of the Spectator, he established in succession 
his Guardian, Englishman, Lover, and Reader, meanwhile becoming more 
and more involved in politics. His shift to pamphleteering was the 
next step, and the attempt to plead as a member of the House the final 
expression of his party zeal. His expectation of a parliamentary career 
had been made possible through the work as a journalist; that service 
had been for Steele, as for Swift and Addison, the means to more impor- 
tant appointment within the gift of his party. 

A survey of the periodicals marshalled on either side in this political 
war would be incomplete without an account of the 1712 tax upon 
stamped paper, particularly as the history of the measure reveals some 
facts regarding less important Whig journals. This government device 
for controlling periodicals was the most comprehensive of all the plans 
for hampering the opposition press. The importance of the measure has 
been commented upon frequently since the time of Swift's exultation 
over the prospect of immediate ruin for all the Whig journals of England. 
That was precisely the intent of the measure, but its effect was not to be 
so great as its projectors expected. 

60 The Reader, No. 2, April 24, 1714. 

61 Mr. Aitken has included in his Life (I, 405) Steele's first draft of what was to have 
been the opening number of another periodical, to have been called the Scavenger. 
The chief objects of abuse therein were again the Examiner and Abel Roper, editor 
of the Tory Postboy. 



PARTY JOURNALS AND JOURNALISTS 77 

Agitation for some mode of checking the opposition writers had begun 
long before the passing of the law. The most distinguished plea for 
action came from Queen Anne in her speech from the throne on January 
17, 1702. In 1711 Swift had expressed himself as opposed to the 
course that was later adopted, 52 but in 1712, seeing the political expedi- 
ency of such action, he changed his opinion completely. The Act of 10 
Anne, c. 18 should be remembered as one passed chiefly for political 
ends: the income to be gained, though it was undoubtedly large, was of 
secondary importance. The following tariff was imposed under the Act. 
All print-paper was to be stamped at the rate of half a penny for half- 
sheets or less, and of one penny for any size between a half and a whole 
sheet. Pamphlets containing more than six sheets octavo, twelve sheets 
quarto, or twenty sheets folio, were considered books, and so were exempt. 
All paper in stock was to be stamped, but the tax upon unsold copies 
might be recovered later upon application to the Commissioners appoint- 
ed under the Act. Penalties for attempts to evade the law were also 
established by further provisions. The first penalty was the loss of all 
copyright protection. Next, in order that anonymous publications 
might be suppressed, a penalty of twenty pounds was set for the omission 
of the name and address of printer and publisher. 63 

One Whig periodical to suffer under these provisions was the Obser- 
vator. It had been established as a Whig journal on April 1, 1702, and 
with occasional breaks in its issue had been appearing twice each week 
until this heavy burden of taxation fell upon it. It had been a very 
serviceable journal. During the earlier years Captain John Tutchin 
endured heavy persecution for conducting the paper. His death in 
September 1707, still held to have been brought on by rough usage at 
the hands of his political enemies, stopped the issues temporarily. In 
1709 it is supposed that George Ridpath brought out a new series of the 
Observator, and in April, 1712, the Examiner listed it 54 among the periodi- 
cals then opposing vigorously all government policies. Later editors of the 
journal kept secret their identity, so that nothing but surmises are pos- 
sible regarding what Whig writer kept up the paper. The last impor- 
tant reference to it was Swift's exultant cry that the Observator had 
fallen under the added cost upon stamped paper. 

62 Journal to Stella, January 31, 1710-11. 

63 John Macfarlane, "Pamphlets and the Pamphlet Duty of 1712." The Library, 
New Series, I, 298-304. Professor J. M. Thomas of the University of Minnesota will 
soon publish an article on the same topic, (v. P. M. L. A.) 

M The Examiner, III, No. 21. April 24, 1712. 



78 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

Other Whig journals also failed to survive the test put upon all 
periodicals by the new Tory tax. The Postman, which had been in 
existence since February 1704, and probably much longer, 55 was alive 
in 1712; but after the Stamp Act became effective, nothing more was 
heard of it. The Protestant Post-Boy 56 also served the Whig cause 
effectively in the year 1711, a fact demonstrated by Swift's angry pro- 
test to Bolingbroke that its editor deserved prosecution. 57 Apparently 
his protest was not completely successful, for the paper survived the 
threatened "squeeze extraordinary" and was still in circulation the fol- 
lowing spring. Yet it did not survive the tax levied on August 1, 1712. 

The failure of these Whig journals did not bring much relief to the 
administration. A decrease in number meant only that larger subsidies 
would be available thereafter for those still in circulation, and that such 
a merging as that of the Flying Post and the Medley would keep up the 
range of circulation at smaller operating expense. Practically no advan- 
tage excepting in income resulted from the levy, while many non-partisan 
papers conducted solely on their merits and not objectionable to the 
government suffered severely under the burden. Contemporary com- 
ment upon the Act in the British Mercury shows that news-writers saw 
the political motive behind the measure and doubted its success. One 
asserted as his opinion, that though the number of papers would be made 
smaller, the final blow to party journalism would come only upon dec- 
laration of peace with France. 58 Political controversy was recognized 
as a necessity if partisan sheets were to persevere, and to the discerning a 
settlement of the greatest matter of party contention seemed the only 
means to an ending of party journalism. 

But this natural conclusion as to the future of party writing was 
upset by the constant appearance of new matters of dispute. The 
at t raction of public office was then as now sufficient ground for differences 
of opinion, and therefore the partisan sheets did not die out. Their 
number rose or fell in proportion to the heat of the immediate contro- 
versy. In October 1709, when strife was hot over questions of Church 

66 This journal, or another of the same name, was satirized in the second num- 
ber of Defoe's Review. 

66 No. 36 is in the British Museum. I have discovered little regarding the paper 
except that it appeared three times a week. Its editor was one of fourteen Whig 
journalists committed to Newgate during 1711. 

57 Journal to Stella, October 9, 1711. 

* 8 The British Mercury, No. 369. July 3-August 2, 1712. 



TARTY JOURNALS AND JOURNALISTS 79 

and slate, over fifty-five papers were appearing weekly in London. 89 
Three years later the course of events had created a new condition, in 

which it was unprofitable to keep up so many separate journals. Party 
leaders then centralized their energies by merging their periodicals and 

subsidizing only a few, so that when Bolingbroke's Stamp Act was about 
to take effect, there were appearing in London, weekly, only twenty-one 
papers — less than half of the number in circulation three years earlier.* 

Both of these lists are probably incomplete. Without a doubt, 
many papers not mentioned by contemporary writers were in existence 
during Queen Anne's reign. Likewise, it seems certain from the incom- 
pleteness of the large collections of eighteenth century periodicals 61 that 
many news-sheets once in circulation arc not now known to us. 

In spite of inadequate information regarding less important periodi- 
cals, the matter available affords good evidence of conditions. Clearly 
enough the interest in news journals was increasing throughout the 
period. Before the Taller and Spectator drove such thriving trade there 
existed an intelligent reading public which consistently purchased 
journals for domestic and foreign news. This circumstance proves that 
however much these two periodicals may have developed the public 
taste, they by no means created the liking for reading matter. Men 
read intelligently before 1709: they did not learn to enjoy periodical 
literature solely through the work of Steele and Addison — a belief that 
has given these two essayists an undeserved prominence in the general 
account of such writing. The Taller and Spectator improved the popu- 
lar taste for periodical literature, but they by no means created the 
market. 

The steady growth of political journalism from 1702 until 1710 was a 
most potent factor in the preparation of conditions suitable for a liner 
type of writing. Men depended upon newspapers more and more for 
their opinions, and many writers — notably Defoe — discovered the new 
possibilities of party work. After 1710 the conditions of production 
were affected in increasing measure by the artificial stimulation of sub- 
sidies, until eventually every competent writer was forced to decide 
whether or not he would accept political patronage. This pressure 

"John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, etc., I, 3. 

t0 Thc British Mercury, No. 369. July 3-AugUSl 2, 1712. In both instances the 
total included periodicals of all sorts, bul t lie largest class was political. Whal few 
lisis remain show that party journals were the most numerous and also most dependeril 
upon ( urrenl events. 

" The Burney Collection in the British Museum and the Hope Collection at Oxford 
are the best known and most ipl( te. 



80 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

changed the conditions of literary production and in the end completely- 
altered the materials. 

The most striking result of the new interest in party writing was a 
marked increase in the number of periodicals. When Oxford made the 
journal a fundamental part of his political organization, he fostered 
indirectly far more papers than ever came under Tory patronage. Others 
followed his example until every special faction, often for a single party 
measure, established its own paper. This increase in numbers was fol- 
lowed by a rapid reduction as the Tory leaders centered their subsidies 
upon a few chosen representatives, and as government restrictions made 
it advisable for the opposition to follow their example. The final direct 
result was to make circulation depend on the private interest of a few 
rather than upon a natural demand of the general public. The party 
organ became simply a tool in the hands of a special group, and in conse- 
quence its readers were also subjected to party control. In this rinal 
development appeared the last stage of a steady progression. Party 
leaders used the public press for special ends and established papers not 
dependent upon sales. To do this they drew in serviceable writers, 
making the decision as to what topics should get consideration, until at 
last they virtually controlled the thought of both writer and reader. 

The rapid decline of purely literary periodicals furnishes excellent 
proof for this conclusion. It has been shown that the Spectator fell before 
the new demands being made upon its editors; and though Addison 
temporarily returned to the periodical essay, neither he nor Steele really 
revived his original interest. Defoe never freed himself from the 
increasing demands of party-writing, while Swift merely exchanged the 
labor of actual production for other duties quite as engrossing. Since 
the best writers were all interested in political papers, it is not strange 
that those of literary type quickly degenerated, and that in great meas- 
ure party journals usurped their place in public esteem. In less compe- 
tent hands a new Tatler 62 quickly failed; the Hermit, 63 the Lay Monk, 6 * 
and others speedily came to an end. It is not, therefore, too great a 
charge against the party journal as a type, to assert that between 1710 
and 1714 it changed completely the conditions of literary support in 
England, and temporarily perverted public taste from a wholesome lik- 
ing for the new literary form commonly called the periodical essay. 

82 Harrison's Taller, begun on January 13, 1711, under Swift's patronage, ran to 
fifty-two numbers. Burn (p. 17) credits Harrison with only forty-five issues. 

88 The Hermit, by Way of Short Essays on Several Subjects appeared from August 4, 
1711, until February 23, 1712. Thirty issues were brought out during that time. 

64 The Lay Monk was the title chosen by Sir Richard Blackmore and John Hughes 
for a periodical in imitation of the Spectator. It appeared thrice a week from Novem- 
ber 10, 1713 to February 15, 1714. As the Lay Monastery the collected articles went 
through two editions in the year of its discontinuance. 



CHAPTER VI 
WHIG REWARDS UNDER GEORGE I 

EXPECTATION OF REWARD TO WRITERS — STEELE'S EMPLOYMENTS — IN 
HIGH FAVOR WITH THE KING — HIS HdHOVer Post AND SECOND 

Englishman — his theatrical difficulties — Steele and addi- 
son on the Peerage Bill — Steele's relations with walpole — 

ADDISON AND LORD HALIFAX — ADDISON'S PETITIONS AND STATE 
GRANTS — HIS INFLUENCE AS LITERARY ADVISOR — BUDGELL AND 
TICKELL REWARDED — NICHOLAS ROWE — CONGREVE — AMBROSE 
PHILIPS — CIBBER, HUGHES, ODELL, RIDPATH — DISAPPOINTED PETI- 
TIONERS. 

When George I became king of England, Tory supremacy ended 
abruptly. The king knew how earnestly the Tories had striven to pre- 
vent the Hanoverian succession and to restore the Stuart line, and as a 
result was entirely disposed to put his affairs into the hands of Whig 
leaders. Oxford and Bolingbroke disappeared from political life, and 
simultaneously Charles Townshend, General Stanhope, Robert Wal- 
pole, and the Earl of Sunderland got control of the state council cham- 
ber. The completeness of their power was to some extent due to the 
king's ignorance of the language, a circumstance that contributed to the 
rapid growth of cabinet government during the decade from 1715 to 
1725. Partly for this reason and partly because party leaders under 
Queen Anne had enlarged the duties of the ministry, George I could not 
dominate his council, and as a result the ruling party leader soon became 
virtual head of the state. Part of this leader's public power came from 
another source; namely, from a continuance of Oxford's policy as to the 
patronage of party journals. The press was again employed as a means 
of controlling popular opinion, and the writers at hand were recognized 
as necessary to the integrity of the party organization. 

This established opinion favoring party writing prompted Whig 
journalists to ask favors from the new ruler and his aids. George I 
encouraged them by announcing publicly, in his first address, an inten- 
tion to reward all who had promoted the Hanoverian cause, and this 
statement caused a flurry of expectation among the journalists. Even 
before his arrival the English writers had prepared for his coming by 
expressing in prose and verse their joy over the peaceful succession. 
To be sure ignorance of the language hindered the new king in under- 



82 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

standing the panegyrics showered upon him by the Whig pools, hut the 
flatteries were easily translated. Everyone not irreparably branded as 
Tory promptly wrote verses of greeting to the new ruler, and the Whig 
lords encouraged their individual favorites to expect generous return. 
Among those to greet King George in verse were the poet Young, Nicho- 
las Rowe, Ambrose Philips, Thomas Tickell, George Ridpath, Steele, 
and Addison. The two named last most confidently expected Whig 
patronage. 

After his expulsion from the House of Commons Steele was tempor- 
arily restrained from party service, partly by reason of events that made 
the summer of 1714 a time of political unrest. The Whigs had lost 
power when he went from the House on March 18, and the Tories were 
also greatly disorganized before July 27, the day upon which Oxford 
received his dismissal at the hands of the Queen. Steele's friends had 
been nonplussed by their successive reverses following the Treaty of 
Utrecht, and meanwhile the Tory party was being disrupted by factional 
disputes. Consequently for the lime being the old subjects of party 
contest became insignificant in comparison with the private quarrel of 
Oxford and Bolingbroke. The Latter had seemingly won his way to the 
head of affairs when Oxford was dismissed, but charges of corruption 
proved sufficient to deprive him of the coveted place in the Treasury. 
All Bolingbroke's plans were upset by the death of the Queen on August 1, 
whereupon factional disputes and personal ambitions were again sub- 
merged in the resurging tide of party controversy. At that time all disa- 
bilities were removed from Steele, who had been inactive following his 
expulsion from the House. At once his political importance rose; the 
Whig lords were in a position to treat him generously, and he could con- 
fidently look forward to new state employment. 

With a clear understanding of what had been the value of his party 
service before the death of the Queen, Steele at once began seeking favor 
at the court of George I. 1 He first mentioned his expectations in a letter 2 
written only three days after the Queen's death. It reads 

1 The year 1714 had been profitable for Steele. On the authority of a contempor- 
ary pamphlet, Aitken estimates {Life of Steele, II, 6 n. 2.) that the Crisis, published on 
January 19, brought in £2,000, aside from Steele's secret service money. Later, 
when expelled from the House of Commons, he received a £3,000 gift from an unnamed 
friend. 

: Aitken, Life, etc., II, 36. 



whig rewards under george i 83 

Thatched House, S nt James Stri 

Aug ST 4 TH iyi4 

Dear Prue 

I have been loaded with compliments from the Regents and 
assured of something immediately, but have not heard w l answer Philips 
brings from Scott. I desire you to send me a Guinnea. I shall have 
cash in the morning. I wait Here to Speake with Cadogan, with whom 
I would explain the posture of my affairs more earnestly. 

Faithfully Y re ' 

Richard Steele. 
In another letter dated August 15, 3 Steele ventured to hope for success 
in seeking the patent for farthings, but General Cadogan's assistance 
to that end was evidently useless. It was not long, however, before 
the King's arrival made his office-seeking more productive, for within a 
few months Steele was made Surveyor of the Royal Stables at Hampton 
Court, 4 a Justice of the Peace, Deputy-Lieutenant for the County of 
Middlesex, and Supervisor of the Theater. These appointments were 
made through the active interest of Marlborough and other party 
leaders, but his personal reputation among the Whigs also had its effect. 
As supervisor of the Theater, Steele shared a license with Robert 
Wilks, Colley Cibber, Thomas Doggett, and Barton Booth. This new 
document was given them by King George I. It gave them the power 
formerly vested in William Collier, and under its terms Richard Steele 
was the main beneficiary. This royal grant is dated October 18, 1714, 
and by its terms Cibber, Booth, Wilks, and Doggett, the licensees, were 
required to pay Steele their license fees, a sum that Cibber states netted 
Steele £1,000 a year as a sharer, but which had brought Collier under 
the pension plan only £700. The place of supervisor was granted as 
"an earnest of future favour," a promise that the King fulfilled shortly 
after; on January 12, 1715, he gave Steele £500, and on the nineteenth 
of the same month, a patent on his theatrical holdings for life and three 
years over. This took the place of the old license, and gave protection 
against sudden interference from the Lord Chamberlain or other influ- 
ential persons, a possibility that was a real disadvantage of the tempor- 
ary appointment. 5 It was under this grant that Steele made about 
£1,000 a year by entering into an agreement with Cibber and the others 

3 Aitken, Life, etc., II, 36. 

4 This appointment is mentioned in the Weekly Packet for March 26-April 2, 1715. 
6 The warrant for Steele's license is summarized in Aitken, II, 53. However 

profitable the theater grants may have been, Steele evidently was not fully satisfied. 



SI party POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

to take b share instead oi the i • x < « l pension formerly paid to the Buper- 

During the year 1715 !<*• was honored in various ways, and in return 
j>a\ c faithful Bei \ it e. ( >n February 2 he was made member of parliament 
for Boroughbridge, an honoi easily obtained through Whig assistance, 
\ . to the manner oi his elet tion, Steele left good proof some years later, 
wluu he wrote in Ids diary, "The Duke of Newcastle brought me into 
this presenl Parliament for the town of Boroughbridge," 8 simply one 
oj the mam such ia.es to be found on record during ilds time. Surely 
elevation to the knighthood exactly b week after Ids election was also 
due to powerful Whig noblemen. 

i .lid m the year Steele received further reward when five hundred 
pound', were secretly paid him from Treasury funds. This sum was sent 
by Walpole through the hands of Leonard Welsted, a government clerk, 
and the transaction illustrates exactly the methods then used in paying 
oul secret service money. A state employee would receive a sum o\ 
money, and ii was then charged to him in the Treasury accounts, rids 

sum was not foi his own use, luil was to he disposed ol according to 

oral never written instructions. Thus all trace of the transaction 
was lost aftei ih<- mone\ left the hands of the Treasury employee. In 
ihis particular case Welsted told Alderman Walthoe "that he received 
the money foi the use of sir Kit hard Steele, and paid it to him,"' a state- 
ment that is verified by the following letter of Steele's: 

AuG ST 14 ra , 1715. 
Speaker's Chambers. 

Deai Prue 

l write this before I go to L Marlborough's to let You Know that 
there was no one at the Treasury but ECelsey, with Whome Welsted left 
the Order and lie is to be at the Treasury again tomorrow between 

tWO and three when, without doubt, the money will he pavd. 1 have 

\ contemporary record states "About this time the celebrated Mr. Steele, to his great 
mortification, was made Governor oi the Playhouse, when he expected •> post among 
the first Minister? >>i State, on the merit ol his immortal HU-ls, particularly the ( 
published In the reign ol Anne." Quoted ibid., It, 55 n., from Salmon, Chronological 
Historian (1 17), II, 45 

; 15c, fols 148-9 

iritannica (1763), \ I. 3830 n 



WHIG REWARDS UNDER GEORGE I 85 

no hopes from that or any tiling else; but by Dint of Riches to get the 

government of y r Ladyship. 

Y r9 

Richard Steele. 8 

In addition to these favors Steele soughl to gain the vacant master- 
ship of Charterhouse, a posl for which he was disqualified by a statute 

requiring the appoint mcnl of an unmarried man. Vet he wrote in his 
own behalf to Lord-Chief-Justice Parker, to Mrs. Clayton, Mistress of 
the Robes to the Princess of Wales, and finally to the King himself. 
Though he pleaded loss of employments amounting to £700 a year wh< o 
he entered parliament, the mastership of Charterhouse went to another. 
At the close of 1715 he had good reason for satisfaction in spile of this 
disappointment, inasmuch as he was getting a comfortable in< ome from 
other sources. A close estimate would probably put the total at about 
the £2,000 asserted by a contemporary to have been his yearly income. 9 

These favors acted as incentives to renewed journalistic effort. In 
the same year Steele planned to start a new Whig paper under the name 
of the Hanover Posl. His party interest then is well indicated by the 
unpublished announcement of this journal, which reads: "The design 
of this paper is more extensive, and its view to the public good more 
direct, than is usuall in works of this kind. On one hand, the want 
of skill in writers of intelligence produces such mistakes that explana- 
tions are frequently wanting both w respect to persons and things; 
on the other, so many libels are successfully dispersed under the notion 
of public News, that scarce anything comes to us in its genuin & natural! 
colours; it is very reasonable therefore, that our country should have a 
friend in this rank of Authors, and that one of them should more imme- 
diately regard the interests of Truth and honour. 'I his is what has 
engaged me in the present undertaking . . ." 10 The journal was 
never begun, however, probably because a new series of the Englishman 
was about to serve the same party demand. Number one of the second 
series under the famous title appeared on July 11, 1715, and on Novem- 
ber 21, the thirty-eighth and last. In these issues it was Steele's chief 
desire to foment popular hatred towards the fallen Tory leaders, Oxford 
and Bolingbroke, and thus to break up any plans for a Jacobite rebellion. 

" Aitkcn, Life, etc., II, 7.^. 

9 By the author of A Letter to the Right Worshipful Sir R. S. concerning his Remarks 
cm the Pretender's Declaration. Aitken, Life, etc., II, 81, n. 1. 

"Printed from the Blenheim MSS, ibid., II, 71. 



86 PART? roil ncs AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

Within a month of the discontinuance of the second Englishman, 
Addison began Ids equally famous Freeholder, width kepi up the contest 
for six months longer, it continued to appear regularly from December 
13, 1715, until the issue of number fifty five, the last, on June . ,( », 1716. 
Meanwhile Steele began Ids weekly Town Talk, the fifth number of 
width was devoted to a long letter to the Pretender. Though his interest 
in theatrical and social gossip reasserted itself in this periodical, hi- could 
not long remain silent on political topics, so that a prompt return to such 
materials was to be expected. Very soon alter dropping this social 
journal, which came out weekly between December 17, 1715, and Feb- 
ruary 13, 1710, his impetUOUS nature led Id in to attack Addison, and from 

this disagreement developed an ill will that was undoubtedly increased 
l>\ Addison's rapid advancement in slate affairs. In the Freeholder for 

March 17 Addison had called upon Englishmen to show their fidelity 
to the existing government, partly because the nation was thought 
abroad to he naturally tickle and unstable. Steele's retort took the 

form of an essay, which was never published, in defence of his country- 
men againsl this charge of instability." Though o\ no political impor- 
tance, the disagreement contributed to the unfriendliness thai reached 

its climax in 171 ( >, shortly before Addison's death. 

l'lie other interesting items in Steele's party activity during 1 7 1 are 

summarized very well in the pages of ChU-Chaty* a short-lived paper 

that devoted much space to his affairs. Briefly, the journal aimed at 
reestablishing Steele anion-; his fellow Whigs in the position lost through 
his honest opposition to certain party measures. This loss of standing 
had not, however, cut him o\\ from patronage, for on June 7 he was 
appointed Commissioner to act with twelve others in Condemning for 
state use the lands of Scottish property owners who had taken part in the 
1715 rebellion, an appointment that was to prove of considerable impor- 
tance. 

In this new employment Steele received £1,000 annually, probably 

until the Commission was discharged in April 1725, His last signed 
report was made on November 16, 1722. Perhaps final proof of his 
income during these years is to be found in his letter of May 11. 17 IS, 
in which he defended himself before his fellow-commissioners against a 
charge of neglect of duty. Having asserted that he was too deeply 
involved in Ids fishery project to venture heavy loss through making a 

11 Printed from the Bfofctm MSS, Aitken, / /v. etc., 11, 82. 

■' Extracts printed by aitkeo dh 88 91) are from scarce copies of the second ami 
third issues, dated March to .mil lo, 1716. 



WHIG REWARDS CINDER GEORGE l 87 

trip into Scotland at that lime, be summed up the situation as follows: 
"Tlio" (besides what I have to leave behind) my present income is 
£2,000 per annum, I cannot this moment Leave town without almost 

irreparable detriment."" Before obtaining this place, Steele may have 

received less than this amount annually from state appointments, but 
the letter indicates that he submitted to the established rule forbidding 
one to receive other Treasury payments while acting as a Commissioner. 
The account books for the Townshend and Stanhope ministries show 
no entries of other Treasury payments to him, so that whatever came 
to him through means apart from his Scottish Commission or the theatri- 
cal holding was paid through secret channels. He may possibly have 
tried lor the post of laureate, made vacant in December 1 7 1 <S through 
the deal h of Nicholas Rowe, but of this there is no proof. 

In the meantime his receipts from the theater were augmented on 
one occasion through the King's favor. On April 13, 1717, the Duke of 
Newcastle had been made Lord Chamberlain, and differences at. once 
arose n him and Steele. Newcastle questioned the right of Steele 

and his confreres to their patent and had offered them a license in 
exchange: naturally, they refused. As appears from a query addressed 
to the Attorney-General on October 25, 1718," this dispute reached it. 
height in the fall of that year. The question raised was whether or not 
Steele was accountable under his patent to the King alone. No opinion 
was handed down, but through the indirect evidence of the King's 
patronage () f the Drury Lane Company immediately after this dispute, 
it appears probable that he suppressed the Lord Chamberlain's protest. 
Steele's company received a royal invitation to perform at Hampton 
Court, and after giving seven plays, was rewarded with £374 Is. 8d. as 
expense money and two hundred pounds as a gift from the King. lr ' 

In 1719 the Lord Chamberlain had opportunity to renew his ill- 
natured attacks, for Steele was then in general disfavor with the party 
leaders. He had neglected his duties as Commissioner of Forfeitures, 
and this failing had caused several complaints, which were sent to the 
Treasury Commissioners on July 23, July 30, and October 10, 1719. 16 
A greater source of ill-will towards him was his attitude in the matter of 

" Hist. MSS, Com. Var. Coll., VIII, 101. 

14 Lord Chamberlain's Records, Warrant Book 25, p. 142. Quoted in Aitken's 
Life, II, 189. 

16 Ibid., p. 190. 

19 1 have found nothing in the Treasury Papers on this point beyond what is given 
in Aitken's Life, II, 199-200. 



88 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

the 1719 Peerage Bill, an administration measure. In this he opposed 
Addison through his periodical, the Plebian, which came out four times 
between March 14 and April 6. Addison replied on March 19 and 
April 2 with a paper called the Old Wing, while Walpole and others were 
also busy publishing their pamphlets on either side of the controversy. 
Steele's ardor in behalf of the measure was due wholly to conviction, not 
to any secret understanding with the Tories. Yet his situation as a 
Whig became still more peculiar when at the fall session of parliament 
he appeared working on the same side as the Earl of Oxford, who, only 
two years before, had obtained release from the Tower. An unalterable 
foe of the government, Oxford was addressed in A Letter to the Earl of 
O[xfor]d, concerning the Bill of Peerage, by Sir R[ichar]d S[tee\le, published 
on the eighth of December, the day when the Peerage Bill came up for 
final vote. The result was a decisive defeat for the ministry, who there- 
after were naturally unfriendly towards opponents of the measure. 

As one consequence, they set out at once to penalize Steele. On 
December 19, the Lord Chamberlain indirectly took revenge by for- 
bidding Cibber from acting thereafter with the company. Incidentally, 
he paid off a score against Cibber himself for an uncomplimentary 
dedication to Ximena and for refusing to give a certain player the part 
previously assigned to one of the managers. 17 Steele was also deeply 
injured by the action and protested bitterly. Shortly after this inci- 
dent, on January 25, he was deprived of his patent. Five days later 
his old associates opened the house without him, and he remained in 
disfavor until May 2, 1721. Then Walpole, his friend from the days of 
Queen Anne, compelled the other patentees to readmit Steele to his 
former standing and to settle for all shares from which he had been 
excluded. Incidentally, Walpole forced Newcastle, the Lord Chamber- 
lain, to sign the writ that made restitution for his earlier misdeeds. 

Until 1724, Steele continued to live in fair circumstances, though 
constantly involved in debt. In that year he reached some agreement 
with his creditors and retired to the country. His last favors from George 
I were a gift of five hundred guineas for the dedication of The Conscious 
Lovers (1722) and a hundred pounds, in February, 1725, from the King's 
bounty. 18 

A survey of Steele's career after 1715 shows that he was well cared 
for as long as his opinions conformed to those of his party. At the 
accession of George I he received important appointments, and his 

17 For details see Lowe's (1889) edition of Cibber'e Apology. 

18 Treas. Minute Book, 1724-27. Vol. XXV, p. U n. Aitken, Life, II, 302. 



WHIG REWARDS UNDER GEORGE I 89 

popularity diminished only after the events of 1719. In that affair 
Robert Walpole, as in 1713, was on Steele's side; in both instances he 
showed an appreciation of the value of political writing. Thus George I 
and Robert Walpole, both usually ranked as archenemies of the pro- 
fessional writer, demonstrated in Steele's case a willingness to patronize 
when a past record and promise of present usefulness were the recom- 
mendations to favor. It is entirely clear from the records that neither 
was insensible to the current opinion regarding the utility of party 
journalists and pamphleteers. 

At Queen Anne's death Addison was made Secretary to the Regency, 
probably, as Halifax said, that he might thus be in place to become a 
Secretary of State. This is sufficient proof of how he stood with the 
leading Whigs. At the time of King George's accession Halifax boldly 
aimed at securing the white staff, and he swore that Addison should go 
into office with him. Walpole effectually blocked these plans, but 
through other means Addison got his employments. Before the new 
king was due to arrive at Greenwich, he had gone thither with Halifax 
by barge, and Budgell had also gone in their company in hopes that he 
might win some favor through the help of his illustrious cousin. In this 
move Addison was simply transferring to royalty the attentions he had 
previously paid to the nobility. During Queen Anne's reign he had con- 
stantly worked for the good will of Somers, Halifax, Wharton, and others; 
it was in such manner that he had first won recognition, and in 1714 he 
followed his old procedure. 

At that time his position in parliament as well as his work under 
the Regency gave him public prominence. For years he had been in the 
Whig councils. In 1708 he had failed to hold his Lostwithiel seat 
against a petition, but on December 20, 1709 Wharton's assistance 
had put him into parliament for Malmesbury. Upon such reputation 
he became chief secretary to Sunderland, then newly-appointed lord- 
lieutenant to Ireland, only to lose the post when his patron resigned in 
August 1715. That this patronage did not satisfy him, appears from 
his letter of October 17, 1714, to Halifax, in which he wrote: ". . . I 
fancy if I had a friend to represent to his Majesty that I was sent abroad 
by King William, and taken off from all other pursuits in order to be 
employed in His service, that I had the honour to wait on your Lordship 
to Hanover, that the post I am now in is the gift of a particular Lord 
[Sunderland], in whose service I have been employed formerly, that it is 
a great fall in point of honour from being secretary to the Regents, and 



90 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

that their request to his Majesty still subsists in my favour, with other 
intimations, that might perhaps be made to my advantage, I fancy I 
say that his Majesty, upon such a representation, would be inclined to 
bestow on me some mark of his favour. I protest to your Lordship I 
never gained to the value of five hundred pounds by all the business I 
have yet been in, and of that very near a fourth part has been laid out 
in my elections . . . His Majesty has yet done nothing for me, 
though it was once expected that he would have done something more 
considerable for me than I can at present have the confidence to men- 
tion ... I will humbly propose to your Lordship's thoughts, 
whether his Majesty might not be inclined, if I was mentioned to him, 
to put me in the Commission of Trade, or in some honorary post about 
the Prince, or by some other method to let the world see that I am not 
wholly disregarded by him." 19 

His request was heeded, apparently, for upon his loss of the secre- 
taryship in August 1715, he was promptly made a lord commissioner 
of trade; this post he held until April 1717, when he resigned in order to 
become a Secretary of State. The place as commissioner, worth £1,000 
a year, 20 was granted only after Addison had addressed a memorial to 
the king in person. In this document, written about June 1715, 
Addison recounted his services during Queen Anne's reign; he made 
references to his work as under-secretary to Sir Charles Hedges and 
Sunderland, to his journey to Hanover as Halifax's attendant, and to 
his secretaryship in Ireland under Wharton. 21 The entire letter is an 
excellent example of the direct pleas for patronage common at the 
accession of George I. In one sentence he revealed what pressure had 
previously been applied by those wishing him to turn Tory, by asserting 
as ground for immediate patronage, "[I] never departed from those who 
were well-wishers to your Majesty's interest, though often pressed and 
tempted to it by the opposite party." He added that modesty pre- 
vented his listing his "endeavours, which were not thought unsuccessful, 
in securing such a spirit among the people as disposed them to favour 
the interest of a prince who is so justly esteemed a friend to the liberties 
of Europe." In addition to such comments upon his past record in the 
Whig party, Addison used, in this memorial to the King, an ingratiating 
tone unbecoming for one who is supposed to have stood above his fellows 

19 Works, V, 424-5. 

20 The Weekly Packet, December 17-24, 1715. 

21 Works, VI, 634-6. The appointments were made in 1706, 1707, and 1708 re- 
spectively. 



WHIG REWARDS UNDER GEORGE I 91 

in self-esteem. Unquestionably he was as eager as any to get the fullest 
financial return for his political fidelity. 

Another letter, directed to Charles Delafaye of the State Office, shows 
as clearly Addison's servility to party policy. It was written on June 
18, 1715, to justify his leaning towards the Duke of Ormonde, then in 
great disfavor with the administration. It reads: "I have great dif- 
ficulties with myself in relation to the Duke of Ormonde. When I was 
of the University of which he is Chancellor, I was favour'd with his 
Countenance and Encouragement. When he succeeded my Lord Whar- 
ton in Ireland he resisted many solicitations which were made for the 
place that I have ever since enjoy'd in that Kingdome. I shall never 
pardon myself if I give a Vote that may "have a tendency to the taking 
off his Head, and have reason to believe, my Lord Lieutenant would 
condemn me for such a piece of Ingratitude. I do not remember that 
since I have been in the House I have separated from my friends in a 
single Vote: and all I propose to do in this case is to be absent as by 
Accident if this Impeachment goes on. I desire you to acquaint His 
Ex cy with this particular, that it may not make any Impression with 
him to my disadvantage." 22 At the time Ormonde and Oxford were 
being toasted everywhere by the Jacobites, and violent riots throughout 
England were looked upon as preliminaries to a serious revolution. Under 
such conditions Addison's caution was probably due to self-interest — to 
a determination that under any circumstances he would be prepared. 
The ingratiating tone of his last sentence makes the letter particularly 
ignoble. 

Other appeals during these years of reconstruction prove his activity 
in his own interest. On October 4, 1715, three lords presented a mem- 
orial asking the King to raise Addison's pay as keeper of the records in 
Birmingham Tower. This was promptly endorsed with directions that 
the allowance on this item thereafter should be five hundred pounds, a 
hundred more than under Queen Anne's favor. 23 On April 26, 1717, he 
was granted £1,850 per annum as Secretary of State, 24 and on April 13 
£3,000 secret service money "without imprest, or other charge." 25 
The salary was increased a hundred pounds a year through the patent 
fee. Finally, on March 19, 1718, he was granted a retiring pension of 

22 5. P. Dotn. George I: Bundle 3, No. 69. 

23 Works, VI, 637-8. He was granted the place in May, 1710. 

24 Works, VI, 639. 
24 Ibid., VI, 640 



\ 



92 I'\ki\ POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

61,600 .1 year, and on May 8 silver plate valued at £337 17s.'-'' These 
sum; came into Addison's hands after 1715 through political channels. 
Mi, income from Buch sources seems to have averaged over L*2,.M)i) ;i 
year, u aboul two hundred pounds more than Steele received annually 
dm inr the same period. 

ii is not in income or distinguished employment that Addison most 
(I.-. ni\ urpassed iiis old friend of Spectator days; he was still the recog- 
nized literary advisor of the Whig party, while Steele was merely an 
agent of greater men. Regarding the Peerage Bill the latter asserted 
an individual opinion, bu1 tliis break from conformity simply emphasized 

the extent to whieh he usually worked under guidance, Addison mean 

while maintained carefully his party standing and kept the unofficial 
place ol advisor that had been his during Queen Anne's reign. 

\n interesting proof of this fact lies in an anonymous letter sent 
to him from New York immediately after the death of the Queen. It 
opens with congratulations to Addison upon Ins new political employ- 
ments, with the obvious end of gaining his favor. Though undated and 
unsigned, the letter is marked on the reverse side, "Govn Hunter 
New York Nov. s, 1711." The passage that makes such an appellation 
proper to the writer compares Addison and Swift as follows: "... I 
shall not now Disturb sou with mv private Affairs bul in General! 
Assure \ on that I have suffered beyond the Force of human Nature 
without haveing Received the least Answer to my Enumerable Com- 
plaints during the whole course of y e late Administration. Tho' your 
old Acquaintance the dale of a Tub who it seems had power with the 
Ruined Faction was pleased to [nterpose in my Favour as my Lord Marr 
informed me . . • ""'' Clearly Addison was known to many as a ser- 
viceable agenl at court, similar evidence is to be found in his own 
letter to Halifax without address or date, but certainly written about 
the time of King George's accession, it reads: "Your Lordship having 
given me leave to acquaint you with the names and pretensions of 
persons who are importunate with me to speak to your Lordship in their 

behalf, 1 shall make use of thai liberty, when I believe it may he of use 

to your Lordship, or when l cannot possibly resist the solicitation. . " ?s 

There ean he no question regarding Addison's power at the opening of 
the new reign; his influence at eourt was very great. 

VI, 641 1 1 t'lu' Dictionary of National Biography records the pension as 
being E 1 ,500, Uu this does nol agree with the copy i>i the warrant 

- ,; Brit, t/io., !■■■., 1,971. 

*Harl mss, No. 7,121: the letter is printed In his Works, V, 429. 



WHIG REWARDS UNDER GEORGE I 93 

Much of the Whig patronage in 1715 was due to the natural disposi- 
tion of the party to reward its adherents, not to the interposition of any 
single person. No Swift or Bolingbroke urged men to fidelity by means 
of promises, for in 1715 such a plea was unnecessary. Party writers in 
abundance were at hand to defend the government against the Jacobite 
rebels. They counted on the immediate need of the government as 
well as upon their loyalty to the party when out of power, and confi- 
dently awaited Whig appointments. For this reason it is improbable 
that Addison personally had a share in the grant of employments to all 
these applicants, but several proofs of his interest are available. 

His most prompt action was in behalf of Eustace Budgell, who had 
been dependent upon him during Queen Anne's reign. In 1714, Budgell 
had been made Addison's under-secretary; then he became chief secretary 
to the Lord Justices of Ireland, deputy clerk of the Council, and finally 
a member of the Irish House of Commons. When leaving Ireland, in 
1717, Addison completed this series of favors by procuring his cousin 
the post of accountant-general, a place worth over four hundred pounds 
a year. 29 This Budgell held from August 10, 1717, until displaced on 
December 11, 1718. During 1719 he complained of ill-treatment in 
Ireland under the Duke of Bolton and thus lost favor with his influential 
relative. Another cause for displeasure was a pamphlet written against 
the Peerage Bill, for Addison would naturally dislike such opposition to 
the measure of his own patron, the Earl of Sunderland. Before this 
Budgell had written very little that could be classed as political; con- 
sequently he cannot be considered as a party man of importance, nor 
can his rewards be listed as due to service. His prosperity continued 
as long as he held Addison's good will. Having lost that, he could get 
no more hearings from the administration. During the next reign, 
however, he was to reappear as a vigorous writer against the govern- 
ment, when under the patronage of the Earl of Orrery he contributed 
to the Craftsman, a violent foe to everything advanced by the admin- 
istration. 

Thomas Tickell was another writer to depend upon Addison both^. 
before and after the death of Queen Anne. His name became well known 
during the course of his patron's famous quarrel with Pope over the 
editions of Homer, but before that Tickell had enjoyed some prominence. 
In November 1714 he accompanied Addison to Ireland, probably in 
part because he had previously invoked the King's favor through a poem, 
the Royal Progress. This is undoubtedly the one that Addison recom- 
29 Drake, Essays . . . Illustrative of the Taller, etc., Ill, 6. 



94 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

mended to the Hanoverian Secretary, Monsieur de Robethon, as a 
"master-piece of its kind:" 30 it was further stamped with his approval 
through publication in the Spectator for November 14, 1714. In June 
1715 Tickell used the method of his master when he dedicated his Iliad 
translation to Lord Halifax as a way to patronage — doubtless at Addi- 
son's suggestion. The existence of this dedication adds weight to the 
belief that the entire Homer project was to have been fostered by Whig 
patronage in competition with Pope's version. 31 Certainly thereafter 
Tickell was a party poet, for from that time on he wrote nothing notable 
in non-partisan vein except his lines, To the Earl of Warwick, on the 
Death of Mr. Addison. An appointment as Addison's under-secretary 
of State, in April 1717, gave Tickell excuse for definitely partisan com- 
position. The same year he brought out his party pamphlet, "An Epistle 
from a Lady in England to a Gentleman at Avignon," which passed 
through five editions; in 1718, "An Ode occasioned by the Earl of Stan- 
hope's Voyage to France"; and in 1720, "An Ode inscribed to the Earl of 
Sunderland at Windsor." Aside from editing his patron's writings in 
1721, he did no further literary work of importance, but remained con- 
tent with small Whig employments. 32 

In these two cases Addison evidently applied pressure in order to 
help Whig writers, and his success demonstrated his court influence. 
Another bit of evidence regarding his power, even after resigning his 
secretaryship, exists in a petition sent by Charles Gildon on February 
12, 1719. 33 It is a most pitiful appeal from one who had apparently 
lost most of his natural powers and was finally pleading for some state 
employment as a means to existence. The mere fact that x^ddison was 
the recipient of such a letter in 1719 indicates that his influence at court 
was well understood and that less influential writers turned to him for 

the necessary recommendation. 

* 

Nicholas Rowe had much more claim than either Tickell or Budgell 
to the type of patronage granted in earlier days on ground of literary 
30 Letter of September 4, 1714: Works, V, 420. 

31 Pope's dedication of his Iliad to Congreve was but one move in his plans for 
obtaining favor from men of both political parties. To divert Whig purchasers to his 
own version would have been Tickell's object. 

32 From May 4, 1724, until his death on April 23, 1740, he served the Lord Jus- 
tices of Ireland as secretary. In 1733 appeared his only significant poem for this 
period, "On Queen Caroline's rebuilding the Lodgings of the Black Prince and Henry 
V at Queen's College, Oxford." 

33 Brit. Mus. Eg. MS, 1,971, fol. 33. 



WHIG REWARDS UNDER GEORGE I 95 

merit: he also deserved something for his loyalty to the Whig party. 
From youth Rowe had been interested in literary work, and with his 
second play revealed a willingness to live under court patronage. In 
1702 his "Tamerlane" appeared with William III as its hero, and from 
this beginning the poet developed a popularity at court that reached its 
height late in Queen Anne's reign. Rowe persistently sought either 
royal or party favor by means of judicious dedications, 34 and unequi- 
vocally professed his loyalty to the Whigs. The only suspicion of his 
fidelity to his party arises from Spence's doubtful anecdote, according 
to which the poet learned Spanish upon the hint of Oxford that it would 
be to his advantage, only to be told finally that he was then ready to 
read Don Quixote in the original. 35 

In the account of Swift's work mention was made of an attempt to 
turn Rowe into a Tory. Having rejected such proposals, he was rewarded 
on August 1, 1715, by appointment as poet-laureate. This brought him 
the usual hundred pounds and a tierce of Canary wine annually. The 
election of Rowe was a clear case of political favoritism, for Nahum Tate, 
who had held the place throughout Queen Anne's reign, was removed in 
order that the new favorite might come into office. Thus the post usu- 
ally given for life was subjected to the rules of the political game, and 
Rowe went in — as Thomas Hearne thought, "a great Whig, and but 
a mean Poet." 36 In October 1715 he obtained a two hundred pound 
place as land-surveyor of customs for London. Thereafter he was in 
the Prince of Wales's court, and had he lived would surely have had 

34 "Ulysses," 1706, was dedicated to Lord Godolphin;" The Royal Convert," 1707, 
to Charles, Lord Halifax; "Jane Shore," produced on February 2, 1713-14, to the 
young Duke of Queensberry; "Lady Jane Grey," 1715, to the Princess of Wales. 
His edition of Shakespeare, out in 1709, was dedicated to the Duke of Somerset, who 
proved to be a good patron: his urgings got Rowe an appointment as under-secretary 
to the Duke of Queensberry, secretary of state for Scotland. He held the post from 
February, 1709, until the death of the Duke in 1711. 

In this connection the following letter is of interest: 
Peter Wentworth to Lord Raby at Berlin. 

Twickenham, Sept. 5, 1710. 
"... Mr. Rowe in the dedication of his Edition of Shakespare gives him [the 
Duke of Somerset] the caractor of the Greatest patriot and best Patron in the world; 
and truely to him he was so, for he stickled hard for him to be in the Duke of Q[ueens- 
berry's] office, so much that he had like to have quarrell with the Duke who had a mind 
to have shuffled him off. . ." J. J. Cartwright, The Wentworth Papers, 1705-1709, 
p. 141. 

M p. 174. 

36 Remains and Collections, V, 105. Entry for August 26, 1715. 



96 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

greater favors. The Prince made him clerk of his council, and in May 
1718 appointed him clerk of presentations. He died on December 6 
of that year. In this case official rewards had their usual effect; Rowe 
turned his poetic ability to political ends, and from 1715 on, produced 
nothing but trivial verses in celebration of state occurrences. His 
writings were never influential in the manner of Swift's or Defoe's, and 
clearly he was not highly valuable to his party as a writer. It was not 
on this score that Rowe received his appointments. The recognition was 
due to his fidelity to Whig principles during the reign of Queen Anne, and 
also to the individual patronage of the Duke of Somerset. In this instance 
the Treasury was made the means of literary patronage without much 
regard to returns except as credit accrued to party and patron through 
honors paid to the first editor of Shakespeare. 

William Congreve experienced similar good treatment without 
deserving Whig favors on grounds of political service. His first state 
employments had come through Montagu (Lord Halifax) during the 
reign of William and Mary, but no one then or later pretended that his 
comedies had political importance. He was made a literary dependent 
of the state through the favor of a party leader. As has been seen, both 
Halifax and Swift influenced Oxford to retain Congreve in state service, 
and after 1714 his old patron was in a position to assist him through direct 
channels. But before 1714 Halifax had done much for his favored 
writer. He had made Congreve a commissioner for licensing hackney 
coaches and had held him in the place from July 12, 1695, until October 
13, 1707; he had also kept the dramatist, from December 1705 until 
December 1714, in the post of commissioner of wine licenses. At length, 
with Whig control reestablished, Halifax speedily aided Congreve to the 
secretaryship of Jamaica at seven hundred pounds a year, to a patent- 
place in the Customs worth six hundred, and to a place in the pipe- 
office. Until his death the dramatist enjoyed an income from these 
posts far beyond that of the majority of active Whig writers; it is usually 
estimated as about £1,200 a year, but seems to have been greater. 

Both Congreve and Rowe were patronized for sufficiently practical 
reasons. The political leaders clearly understood the value of promi- 
nent men of letters, for every distinguished writer exercised great personal 
influence. London was the literary and political center of all England, 
and was sufficiently local in its interests so that Congreve personally 
had high political value, simply as a Whig, without writing a line of party 
material. Addison's early influence over his fellows had its source in 
similar circumstances, and on the same grounds Pope was long sought 



WHIG REWARDS UNDER GEORGE I 97 

after by both parties. It was through their individual distinction that 
Rowe and Congreve became of real value to their party. 

It has been noted that in 1710 Swift made a futile effort to buy 
Ambrose Philips by the offer of a post as queen's secretary at the court 
of Geneva. When Philips rejected this Tory offer, he at once became 
one of Addison's circle. Near the close of Oxford's ministry he filled 
a party place of importance in serving as secretary to the Hanover Club, 
a society formed solely to assure the Hanoverian succession. By the 
time of George I's accession he had given many similar proofs of Whig 
attachment, and his rewards were promptly forthcoming. He imme- 
diately became justice of the peace for Westminster, and in 1715 became a 
paymaster for the state lottery. An entry in the Patent Books shows 
that Philips was appointed to the latter post in February in place of 
John Morley, Esq., with an annual grant of five hundred pounds, to be 
paid quarterly. 37 In 1720 he was still receiving money from the Treas- 
ury, for on August 27 of that year he acknowledged receipt of £60 10s. 
6d. 38 

His name is connected with what was probably the first noteworthy 
journal published after 1714. The Freethinker, a journal established by 
Philips in 1718, had a political purpose, though it professed also to pro- 
vide non-partisan news of various sorts. Chancellor Richard West is 
said to have contributed articles on English law and constitutional 
questions; Gilbert Burnet wrote on superstitions; Dr. Boulter, primate 
of Ireland, discussed questions in education. Other writers were Dr. 
Pearce, Rev. George Stubbs, Henry Stephens, and Mr. Welsted. 39 Steele 
also assisted Philips somewhat. 

Shortly after dropping the paper, Philips received an appointment as 
secretary to the Bishop of Armagh, and this led to his election to the 
Irish Parliament during the same year (1724). Two years later he 
became secretary to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, in 1733 was made a 
judge of the prerogative court, and in 1748 returned to London after 
purchasing an annuity of four hundred pounds. This completed his 
public employments. 40 

87 Patent Books, 1714-15; Vol. 29, fol. 120. A note on the warrant indicates that 
he entered office on the twenty-first of February. I cannot identify this entry with the 
Dictionary of National Biography record of Philips's appointment in 1717 to the post 
of lottery commissioner. 

38 S. P. Dom. George I: Vol. 22, fol. 130. 

39 Burn, Catalogue, etc., p. 37. The paper appeared twice weekly from March 
24, 1718, until July 28, 1721. 

40 Philips died on June 18, 1749. Biographical data concerning him is scant. 



98 r.\Kl'\ roil rus AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

Colley Cibber also obtained recognition from the now government. 
He had enjoyed court favor throughout Queen Anne's reign, and after 
1 714 was continued as one of the group in control of Drury Lane Theater. 
In spite of the hostile Intervention of Newcastle he held this profitable 
place for many years. In 1717 he appealed to an unnamed lord in 
government service for a pension in recognition of his anti-Catholic play, 
the Non-Juror.** The result of this appeal was a royal grant to Cibber for 
two hundred pounds. In December 1730 he became poet-laureate, and 
held the post until his death on December \2, 1757. Except as he put 
political comment into his plays, he had no claim upon the Wings to 
bring about these appointments. 

Several other writers deserve mention in an account of the rewards 
meted out at the accession of George 1. Vanbrugh, the dramatist, then 
regained court favor, having been dismissed from lus employments late 
in the previous reign, and resumed his duties as architect of Blenheim. 1 '-' 
On September 1°, 1711, he was knighted, and in January 1715 
reappointed comptroller to the board of works. In 1716 appointment as 
architect to Greenwich Hospital gave him an added two hundred pounds 
ly — as in other cases, because of his earlier literary labors and his 
consequent contemporary reputation, John Hughes, another Whig 
petitioner, had had some insignificant political employments during 
Queen Anne's reign; he had ecu looking for such aid. The bail 

of Wharton, when appointed in 1708 to the place of Lord Lieutenant of 
Ireland, had offered Hughes a small post in recognition of a dedication, 43 
but Hughes injudiciously relied upon another patron and thus lost both 
possibilities. It was only in 1717 that he became independent through 
appointment as secretary to the commissioners of peace in the Court of 
Chancery. This place, obtained through Lord Chancellor Cowper, 
Hughes retained until his death on February 17. 17 JO. 

«5. P. P. I: Vol. It. fol. 40. 

"Though not an active Whig writer, Vanbrugh had hold several places before 
1715. On March 29, 1704, lie became Clarenceux king-at-arms through the aid of 
the Earl of Carlisle. In I70o he conveyed the insignia of the Order of the darter to 
Prince George at Hanover. Previous to that, in 1702, he was made comptroller of the 
board of works, and in June 1705. through Godolphin, architect of the palace to be 
erected at Woodstock. At the etui of 1711 difficulties arising over this project caused 
his dismissal from all his employments. In 1725 Walpole aided Vanbrugh to obtain 
the £2,000 due him for the work at Blenheim. 

H To "Dialogues of the Head . . . With a Reply to some Remarks in a 
Critique call'd the Judgment of Pluto &c. and two original Dialogues." London 1708. 



WHIG REWARDS UNDER GEORGE I 99 

Another protege* of Wharton's, Thomas Odell, began his obscure 
career in London during the lasl year of Queen Anne's reign. He i 
to town resolved to write for the Whigs, and through Sunderland and 

Wharton soon secured a two hundred pound pension. Thereafter he 
in Walpole's service, but none of his party writings are known under 
his own name. It is certain, however, on the authority of William 
Oldys, thai he wrote much for the government. On July 31, 1749, 
Oldys made the following note: "Was at Mrs. Odell's in Chapel Street, 
Westminster. . . Saw several of her late husband's papers, mostly 
P'»ems in favour of the Ministry, and against Mr. Pope. One of them 
printed by the late Sir Robert Walpole's encouragement, who gave him 
ten guineas for writing and as much more for the expense of printing it ; 
but through his advice it was never published, because it might hurt hi . 
interest with Lord Chesterfield and some other noblemen who favoured 
Mr. Pope for his fine genius. . ."« These papers, which might have 
shown something concerning Pope's political activity during Wa!p< 
ministry, were at least written against both Pope and the opposition 
with the entire consent of the administration. For such service Odell 
kept his two hundred pound pension until the death of his hereditary 
patron, the fourth Earl of Sunderland, in 1729. After that he held, 
from 1738 until 1749, the place of deputy licenser of plays, with the 
same yearly return. 

Of the writers little known for literary merit who secured rewards 
from the new ministry, John Ridpath ranks with Hughes and Odell. 
Ridpath had been in hiding in Holland since his trial in Guildhall on 
February 19, 1713. At that time serious charges had been lodged against 
him for his articles in the Flying Post. While a refugee in Holland he 
had kept on writing for the party, so thai returning in safety at the 
accession of a Whig ruler, he naturally expected a reward for his loyalty. 
Current news items show that he had a good deal to say regarding what 
the reward should be. The Weekly Packet for December 18-25, 1714 
reads: "Mr. Ridpath, the Author of the Flying-Post, has been offer'd 
the Place of Treasurer of the King's Kitchin, but refus'd it upon Account 
of his Nonconformity; and desired his Patron to interceed, that he may 
be employ'd in some Post in Scotland, by reason he can much better 
conform to the Religion us'd in that Part of Great Britain." The 
Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer for February 15, 1718, then reported 
his appointment as follows: "Mr. Ridpath, the Author of the Flying- 

44 "Notes from Manuscript Adversaria of William Oldys:" printed in Notes and 
Queries, Second Series, XI, 161. 



100 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

Post, having suffer'd in the late Reign for the Service he did by that 
Paper against the Enemies of the present Government, his Merits are 
now rewarded by the unparallel'd Justice of the Crown, which has been 
pleased to grant him and two Booksellers a Patent, for furnishing the 
Offices in Scotland for 40 years, with blank Books, Paper, and all Sta- 
tionary Wares; which, 'tis said, will bring in £900 per Annum." Aside 
from the date at which Ridpath began this service in Scotland 45 little is 
known regarding his last years. In 1722 he acted as secretary to a 
government lottery at Harburg, Hanover, but nothing is known of his 
last years except that they were passed in disrepute. 

Another Whig writer, George Sewell, was engaged at the close of 
Queen Anne's reign in a series of bitter attacks upon Bishop Burnet, 
and he continued to show his strong Tory inclinations by writing further 
against Thomas Burnet, the bishop's son. Shortly after, in 1718, he 
began active work in direct opposition to his earlier opinions, and became 
a Whig writer for Walpole. In that year his "Resigners Vindicated: 
by a Gentleman" went through four editions. Nothing remains to show 
what was Sewell's source of income, but undoubtedly his change of 
heart between 1715 and 1718 was due to patronage. 

From the life records of such men as Hughes, Odell, Sewell, and 
Ridpath it seems clear that minor writers were not supported by the 
Whigs except as they could enter good claims by reason of service to be 
rendered. In other words, there was no thought of traditional obliga- 
tions to a man of letters. The political leaders expected nothing from 
them but honest craftsmanship, and had no delusion regarding their 
possible debts as leaders in English society to men of literary ability. 
This opinion is verified through examination of the fruitless appeals 
for assistance. Some men who had done work for the Whigs during 
Queen Anne's reign, but who gave no promise of future usefulness, vainly 
asked for help from the ministry. Three of these were Hugh Speke, 
John Dunton, and John Oldmixon. Speke had been trying his hand at 
party writing ever since the days of William III, and in 1683 had suffered 
three years imprisonment for writing a pamphlet against the govern- 
ment. Following his release in 1687, he had actively worked for the 
Hanoverian succession, and in December 1688 had concocted a bogus 
46 The Dictionary of National Biography makes an indefinite reference to Read's 
Weekly Journal for February 12, 1726, for the time of his appointment, but my quota- 
tion from the Weekly Journal gives a more exact date. Reference to Dunton's Life 
and Errors, etc. (II, 734) would have been sufficient to show that Ridpath was still 
out of employment in 1716, the year within which the modern biographer presumed 
that he was appointed. 



WHIG REWARDS UNDER GEORGE I 101 

proclamation that increased popular prejudice against the Roman 
Catholics. On this ground he had appealed to Queen Anne for a return 
of the £5,000 paid for his release in 1687, but had received only a hun- 
dred pounds. Now, with a new member of the House of Hanover on 
the throne, he again asked for patronage. Under a new title he dedi- 
cated the old Declaration of 1688 to George I, an act equivalent to an 
appeal. 46 Though finally the document was translated into French that 
the King might read it in person, Speke received nothing. 

John Dunton had little more claim to favor. He had been writing 
Whig pamphlets for years, but his work had not been taken seriously 
from the time of his odd Life and Errors, published in 1705. Yet his 
1716 account of neglect at the hands of the Whigs states some facts 
with accuracy — so much is sure from outside evidence. This pamphlet, 
called "Mordecai's Memorial: or There is nothing for him," was signed 
as by "an unknown and disinterested clergyman," but was by Dunton 
himself. After some account of his services at the end of the preceding 
reign, the pamphleteer went on by way of contrast to point out what 
had been done for others. After an assertion that Swift had had £1,000 
a year from the late ministry for his Examiner, Dunton ended his anony- 
mous dedication to the Prince of Wales with an appeal for "£1,000 and a 
handsome pension, to be put in a future position to serve King George 
and his native Country." The other writers named in the petition as 
unrewarded were John Toland and Stephen Whately. 

In 1723 Dunton issued a signed petition 47 directed to the King 
himself, but failed again. His plea was based upon a sentence from the 
first speech of George I. The King had said, "I will never forget the 
obligations I have to those that have distinguished themselves by their 
zeal and firmness to the Protestant Succession, against all the open and 
secret practices that have been used to defeat it." With this assurance 
Dunton asked for £2,000 in order to liquidate debts contracted on the 
basis of his hopes, and for a life pension. He acknowledged the receipt 
of a gold medal sent through the Count de Bothmer, with such promises 
of fidelity to King George as ought to have convinced anyone of his 
faithfulness. As final proof of his worth to the government Dunton 
appended a list of forty Whig tracts written during the preceding ten 
years. One was entitled "Royal Gratitude; or, King George's Promise 
never to forget his obligations to those who have distinguished them- 

48 "The Secret History of the Happy Revolution in 1688. . . humbly dedi- 
cated to his most Gracious Majesty King George by the principal Transactor! in it 
[i. e., Hugh Speke.]" 1715. 

47 Printed in Dunton's Life and Errors, etc. (1818 ed.), II, 735-50. 



102 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

selves in his Service critically considered. In a Letter to Robert Wal- 
pole, Esq., occasioned by a general Report that Mr. John Dun ton 
(Author of 'Neck or Nothing') will speedily be rewarded with a consider- 
able Place or Pension." No reward was granted, in spite of the san- 
guine tone of this particular title, so that Dunton's political-literary 
career may be considered as having ended with Queen Anne's reign. 

The third disappointed petitioner, John Oldmixon, was more deserv- 
ing. He had spent his life in party pamphleteering, and during the 
early years of the century had celebrated Whig victories in passable 
verses, quite after the current fashion. Later the party leaders employed 
him on the Medley, with promise of a hundred pound gift and an annual 
salary of a hundred pounds; but after the work was completed, he was 
still unpaid. 48 He consequently had fair reason to expect something 
from George I. 

In 1715 Oldmixon made his formal appeal for Whig favor by dedicat- 
ing to Robert Walpole his Life and Posthumous Works of Arthur Mainwar- 
ing, Esq. Both in the dedication and in the text he referred freely to 
his services and to his hopes for proper recognition. In his Memoirs 
of the Press, he included similar data regarding himself and, by way of 
contrast, facts concerning writers who had been more fortunate. It 
appears that Stanhope had failed to keep his promise of making Old- 
mixon consul at Madeira, and that the petitioner had at least that much 
cause of complaint. Though he was not cared for immediately, in 1716 
John Dun ton wrote of him: "Was not that first rate Poet, Mr. Oldmixon, 
by having a friend at Court, (for kissing goes by favour), lately advanced 
to a considerable post for the great service he had done by his loyal 
rhymes?" 49 This is probably a reference to a promise of place that was 
made good the following year, when he became collector at the port of 
Bridge water. The hundred pounds yearly was not sufficient to satisfy 
him, however, for his subsequent writings are full of references to his 
unfortunate lot. The last accounts of Oldmixon during the reign of 
George I exist in letters to the bookseller Jacob Tonson. In December 
1718 and again in 1720 he laid his case before his friend in London. 60 
The first letter asked that Tonson use his influence with the Duke of 
Newcastle that Oldmixon might be made laureate in Rowe's place. 
This, he said, he " was to have had before had it not been for him [New- 
castle] as S r Sam 1 Garth knows." His best argument was: "No Body 

48 J. Oldmixon, Memoirs of the Press (1742), p. 13. 

«• Life and Errors, II, 732. 

60 Brit. Mus. Add. MS 28,275, fols. 46, 84, 95, 133. 



WHIG REWARDS UNDER GEORGE I 103 

will appear that has my Pretences. If some of 'em have done more for 
ye Muses, which I question, I will prove that I have done more than 
all of them for the crown. Besides I am the best Claimer. Long have 
I been in the Service of the Muses and the Press without any Reward 
and the Life I lead here is not worth living." He complained of neglect 
still more bitterly after the place went to Eusden. 

Though ungenerously treated, Oldmixon had little ground for appeal; 
under the practices then in force no writer whose term of usefulness was 
so clearly at an end had reason to expect attention. The ministry cared 
for such as promised to be effective, but for very few others. Even on 
the score of past merit Oldmixon has been somewhat overrated by James 
Ralph, almost contemporary with him. Ralph wrote: "His merits as a 
Party-Writer, his connections with the fam'd Professor of Politics and 
Philanthropy of Pall-Mali and his submitting to labour at the Press 
like a Horse in a Mill, till he became as blind and as wretched, ought to 
have been, what they were not, so many Preservatives from the accumu- 
lation of Miseries that befell him in his old Age, when he stood most in 
need of consolation." 51 This plea for a wornout party writer rested 
upon the old supposition that the aristocracy, or someone, was morally 
obliged to care for men of letters. This was the very practice that 
political leaders had begun to ignore; when they demanded of every 
writer some immediate productivity, the foundation for private patron- 
age was gone. Both Oldmixon and Dunton had outlived their useful- 
ness. Seeing this, the Whig leaders disposed of them as speedily as 
possible and reserved their substantial favors for those able to give 
service in return. 

61 The Case of Authors by Profession, Trade, etc. (1762 ed.), p. 3 n. 



CHAPTER VII 
DEFOE AND WALPOLE IN THE SERVICE OF GEORGE I 

PROSECUTIONS BEFORE 1721 — DEFOE'S STRATAGEMS ON THE SIDE OF THE 
MINISTRY — HIS SUPERVISION OF THE PRESS — ADMINISTRATION 
JOURNALS IN CIRCULATION BETWEEN 1715 AND 1721 — THE Lon- 
don Journal — walpole's subsidy plan — the Briton — the negus 

INVESTIGATION OF 1723. 

During the reign of George I, while Charles Townshend and 
James Stanhope were in control matters continued in the usual 
course; moderate patronage was extended to administration writers 
and irregular modes of prosecution were used to restrain the 
opposition. Such was the state of affairs from 1715 to 1721. Defoe 
was as before able to get into the administration camp, where he directed 
ingenious schemes for hampering Tory writers; Walpole, always aggres- 
sive, was then pushing many individual prosecutions. Aside from the 
work of these two, little was done to make party writing of a different 
sort from that produced during the reign of Queen Anne. 

From 1714 until 1721 sudden arrest, imprisonment, and fine were the 
usual punishments for indiscreet writers, printers, publishers, and news 
hawkers. Government spies became more active in collecting evidence 
for court proceedings, an indication that rewards for information were 
fairly generous. Yet aside from Defoe no writer was interested in a 
centralized organization for protecting the administration. He alone 
seems to have worked out intelligent plans for checking the opposition 
to Townshend and Stanhope. 

A few instances of prosecution before 1721 will show how the govern- 
ment treated the opposition press. In November 1714, the Attorney 
General was given orders to prosecute several writers for attacking the 
ministry, 1 a general order that apparently had little effect ; yet some atten- 
tion was thereafter given to individual cases. In January 1715 a pro- 
clamation announced £1,000 reward for information against the author 
of a pamphlet called English Advice to the Freeholders of England, and 
five hundred pounds for the detection of the printer. 2 This was a return 
to the methods of Oxford and Bolingbroke. During the same month 
William Hurt, printer of the Flying Post, successfully spied upon Robert 

1 The Weekly Packet, November 20-27, 1714. 

*Ibid., January 8-15, 1715. 



DEFOE AND WALPOLE IN THE SERVICE OF GEORGE I 105 

Mawson, caught him at four in the morning while printing off a pam- 
phlet, 3 and finally saw him face the grand jury. 4 At times hawkers 
and peddlers were caught when leaving seditious papers at private houses, 
or the manuscripts themselves were intercepted between the home of the 
writer and the printing house. Such were the methods of repression in 
force during the first year under the new ruler. 5 

The failure of the ministry to pass general measures restricting the 
freedom of the press was in part due to the instability of their situation. 
During 1715 men's minds were disturbed by the Jacobite rebellion and 
by the excitement caused by the prosecution of fallen Tory leaders. 
Following the exciting events of 1715 a readjustment made possible more 
frequent and more severe prosecutions, these chiefly against the libellers 
of Walpole. In April 1716 many arrests followed the publication of a 
new weekly entitled Robin's Last Shift, 6 only one of a myriad published 
during ensuing years against that statesman. In June several hawkers 
went to Newgate for selling a "scandalous pamphlet, entitled King 
George's Farewell to England; or, the Oxford Scholars in Mourning," 7 and 
in September government spies ferreted out a press in Moorfields busily 
turning out copies of The Shift shifted, a new anti- Walpole paper that 
ran through at least twenty numbers by September 15, 1716. 8 

During the same summer charges were prosecuted in most unrelent- 
ing fashion against a Mr. Harvey. According to a contemporary, Har- 
vey lay in jail while the government kept trying to force Fantio, a Jew, 
under fear of death to bear evidence against him. This course was 

3 Ibid., April 16-23, 1715. 
'Ibid., December 10-17, 1715. 

5 The formal trial of Matthew Prior in 1715 was not a part of the general prose- 
cutions, for he had written nothing important politically since the early Examiners. 
They, however, had added to his unpopularity among the Whigs, which dated back 
to his desertion to the Tories in 1701. Having enjoyed substantial patronage for 
Tory writing and for helping to negotiate the preliminaries to the French peace, in 
1715 he lost his office in the Paris embassy. After three years in prison he was released 
without penalty. 

Between 1718 and 1721, the year of his death, Prior regained sufficient influence 
to draw requests from Dennis, Gildon, and other writers who were looking for Oxford's 
patronage. Bathurst, Gay, Swift, and Oxford saved him from penury by promoting 
a subscription edition of his works, which is said to have brought in £4,000. 

6 The Weekly Packet, No. 198, April 14-21, 1716. The paper reached its eleventh 
issue on April 26 

7 Ibid., No. 208. June 23-30, 1716. 

8 Ibid., No. 222. September 29-October 6, 1716. 



106 PART? POLITICS wn ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

adopted only after the Jew had proved firm "against a bait of £500 a 

year to him and his heirs for ever."' Such stern measures quickly 

increased tear oi the administration Leaders, and particularly of Wal- 

pole; men saw that England was fast falling under new press regulation 

as stern and unyielding as that of [/Estrange. Consequently printers 

lost some of their old courage. The Duke of Mar complained bitterly 
that he could not tind in England or France printers willing to turn out 
his Jacobite pamphlets, 10 but it was simply because the risk had become 
too great. The fear shown by several contemporary writers might be 
adduced as additional evidence to the same conclusion. 

Similar methods were in force in 1717. Isaac Dalton in that year 
endured three months imprisonment and paid ten marks line for pub- 
lishing English Advice to the Freeholders of England] 11 Thomas Weston 
and Charles Hornby were indicted for their Hymn to the Pillory: and 
John Sunderland, coffee-man, was taken up for writing a "scandalous 
1 ibel," entitled "An Ode.' m In June Mist's Journal announced the 
arrest of many pamphlet hawkers for selling Truth found out, or who has 
the best Right to the Scaffold, John or Robin.™ The administration was 
not particularly active during this year, but in 17 IS it began vigorously 
by ordering the Attorney-General to prosecute the news peddlers with 
the greatest severity." The free distribution of pamphlets throughout 
the Westminster. St. James, and Whitehall districts had increased rapidly 
during the last mouths of 1717. ,;> and this order oi the following January 
was the natural consequence. Nothing remarkable developed from this 
new plan for prosecutions, except that state spies were thereafter more 
active. One oi them obtained an unusually good reward for informing 
against Mr. Howell, a non-juring parson, who was imprisoned for writ- 
ing /'/.<■ Case of Schism in the Church of England truly stated. Thomas 
Nast. the spy in the case, got a two hundred pound pension with promise of 
weekly subsistence while in service." It was the possibility of such 
returns that led many volunteers to offer their services to the State 

' Hugh Thomas to Y\\. Bayard [I.. Inese], June 11-::. 1716. Shurt MSS, 11. 227, 

10 Letter to Robert lYoshe. April 28, 17 to. Stuart USS, 11. 128. 

11 Nothing is known oi the recipient oi the five hundred pounds toward offered in 
January 1715 tor information regarding the printer of this pamphlet. 
Weekly l\: . No 252, May 111. 1717. 

"Ibid., No. 258. Juno ::. 17 17. 
r, Vol. 11. 
1 

"!4 1 ( >: entry tor 



DEFOE AND WALPOLE IN THE SERVICE OF GEORGE I 107 

Office. Among others, the notorious printer, Edmund Curll, thus got 
into government employment— a circumstance (hat probably embold- 
ened him in printing his questionable books. 

About this time the government began to buy off the dangerous 
writers. There is evidence that this method was used at least once 
under George I before Walpole made it a standard course of procedure. 
In May 1718 the State Office sent the following refusal to a spy offering 
information— " Give Mr. Tooke his answer in these words: That I had 
laid his proposal before my Lord, and he does not think that y e pun- 
ishing one of those Rascals supposing that could be effectually done is 
[so much] worth the Governm ts while as y e Expence of providing for any 
Person for their Life. . ," 17 Delafaye, the lord in question, and 
Samuel Buckley, the government news agent, later on answered Tooke 
again in similar fashion, a sign that the pension system had had a thor- 
ough trial and had proved effective. Consequently it seems certain that 
by 1718 three satisfactory methods of controlling the press were in use; 
offenders were being arrested and imprisoned, papers and manuscripts 
were being destroyed in printing shops or in the coffee houses, 18 and 
first-class writers for the opposition were getting state pensions. 

In 1718 Defoe proved his value to the administration and fully repaid 
the Whigs for protection and patronage. He had turned to the Whig 
side in 1715 in order to avoid punishment for libelling Lord Angelsey. 
Though the charge was an old one, dating back to the issue of his mock 
Flying Posts of July and August 1714, it was some time before October 
1715 was finally set as the time for his public sentence. Before that 
date Defoe had made his peace with the administration by agreeing 
to write thereafter only for the government. Chief Justice Parker per- 
suaded Townshend to accept the offer, and for the last time Defoe 
changed his party. The terms of his new service are best stated in his 
own letters, which were published by Mr. Lee in 1869. "In considering 
17 S. P. Dom. George I: Vol. 12, fol. 18. 

18 On this method note the following proposal (Stowe MS 246, fols. 82-3), sent 
to Secretary Craggs by an unknown hand. 

March 25, 1718. 
"I send you inclos'd a very vile Paper— it is distributed this day at the Cocoa. 
The pamp[h]let I mention'd contains as I am inform'd Mr. Shippens, Mr. Snells, and 
other speeches, with the Lords protests in relation to the Mutiny Bill. [T]hey will 
not I find be seen in town till they are sent all over the Country. I am inform'd also 
that this week they will actually be sent for the great Towns by the Wagoners and 
Packhorses. If the officers in the Country have orders no doubt but they may Seize 
most of them. . ." 



108 PARTI POLITICS am 1 ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

after tins, which Waj l might be rendered most useful to the Govern- 
ment," he wrote, "it was proposed by my lord [ownshend that 1 
should still appear as it' I were, as before, under the displeasure of the 
Government and separated from the Whigs; and that 1 might be more 
serviceable in a kind of Disguise than if 1 appeared openly; and upon 
this foot a weekl) paper, which l was at tirst directed to write, in 
opposition to a scandalous paper called the Shift Shifted, was laid aside, 
and the tirst Thing 1 engaged in, was a monthly Book called Mercw 

of which presently. In the interval of this. Dyer, the News- 
iter, having been dead, and Dormer, his successor, being unable 

by his Troubles to cany on that Work; 1 had an offer of a Share in the 

vn\ as well as in the Management oi that Work. 1 immediately 
acquainted my Lord [ownshend of it. who. by Mr. Buckley, let me know 
that it would be a very acceptable Piece of Service; for that letter was 
really very prejudical to the Public, and the most difficult to come at in 
a judicial \\..\ in Case of Offence given. My Lord was pleased to add. 
by Mr. Buckley, that he would consider my Service in that Case, as he 
afterwards did. Upon this I engaged in it; and that so far. that though 
the Property was not wholly my own. yet the Conduct and Govern- 
ment of the Style and News was so entirely in me. that 1 ventured to 
assure his Lordship the Sting of that misehievious Paper should be 
entirely taken out. though it was granted that the Style should continue 
l'or\ . as it was. that the Party might be amused and not set up another. 
which would have destroyed the Design; and this part I therefore 
entirely on myself still. . * n% 

This plan was a preliminary to the move that Defoe made in 1718 
against '• . another I'orv paper. He had begun writing for 

this sheet under secret orders from Sunderland in August 1717. At first 
Defbe deceived Mist as he had the others, but soon his dupe became 
suspieious. Lor one thing. Curl! had been badgering Mist to speak out 

DSt the government, simply that he might get the reward of an 
informer. Consequently out of neeessity. Defoe protected his own game 
by making a bargain with the Tory editor. As he wrote to IVafaye. 
M - ad bought immunity from arrest by agreeing to "seem on y' 

e Side as before to rally the 5 P«d y° Whig Writers and even 

y' w< w ug &c and to admit foolish and Trifling things in Favour of 

the [ories " He continued: "This as I represented it to him he ag 

is liberty Enough and resolves his paper shall Lor y c Future Amuse the 

ut not affront the Governm*. 1 have Freely told him That this 

'■'l e Vpril 26, 17 IS. Lee, l. ri. 



DEFOE and WAr.i'Ol.K in THE SERVICE Of GEORGE I 109 

is the Onely Way to preserv his paper, to keep himself from a Jail and 
i'. S< i iir<- The advantages which Now rise to him From it." 2 " After this 

Understanding Defoe continued, except lor a short interruption at the 
end "f 1718, to «mte for Mist's Journal until November 1724. If 

Mr. Lee's gatherings are to he accepted 'i Burely Defoe's, it musl be 
admitted thai he contributed to the late issues, as well as to Apple 
bee'f Original Weekly Journal between June 1720 and March 1726. 
Stylist ii tests alone indicate thi , to have been theca 

During 1718 other journalists, discovering that Mist, had been sub- 
orned by Defoe for the government, satirized tin- agenl of the State 
Office. One paper for December 6 21 published a long satire, which reads 
in part: 

"A, Rata 'l'< run from Calling Hon ic ., 

So Dan another ( aUM t DO 

Leaves poor Nal ink in;; in the Mire, 

Writes Whitehall Evening Posl tor Hire; 

De erta his 'I ory-Rory Prig 

And finds new Fools among the Whi 

We wish the Gentleman much Joy; 

Ano 1 since they're fond of a Decoy, 

May Daniel dive into their Pockets 

And laugh lo think he found Bui h Blockheads." 
A much longer poem in the issue- of the same paper for November 8 
exposed Defoe's whole career of party chicanery. Lines relating to his 
actions during the first years of George I's reign read thus: 

"A fawning, canting, double hearted Knave, 

Is the Inscription fittest for his Grave. 

Look there's the Bribes with which t.his Wreteh was paid 

When he his Country and its Rights betray'd. 

To France and Rome by Mercenary Pen, 

Commending Rogues and slandering honest Men, 

See tie- vile Measures w[hicjh the Ra cal look, 

Willi tricking [Oxford] and Lewd B[olingbro]k[e|. 

Some rime he did for Hanover appear, 

Then tack'd about wrote for the Chevalier. 

A Rope wou'd then have stopp'd his Impious Breath, 

Bui Nancy's** pardon sav'd the Kfnave| from Heath. . . 

20 S. P. Dom. George I, 1718: Vol. 12, fol. 34. The matter is explained at greater 
length in letters printed In Mr. Lee's work. 

21 The Weekly Journal; or, liritinh Gazetteer. 
* Robert Walpole 






1 10 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

Lo t li.it false Vizard which this K[nave] put on; 

Wrote one day Pro and th'othei day writ [C]ott. 
["here's no such Proteus to be found in Story, 
One hour a Whig and the next hour a lory. 
Sometimes Dissenter and sometimes High Church, 

Strait turns his Coat leaves both sides in the Lurch. 

He wrote for all cause that did yield him most. 

Mist's Weekly Journal, Wliitc-Hall Evening Post, 

Two Mercury's each Month one for the WhiggS, 

The t'other fraim'd to please the Tory PriggS. 

See how his Libels feed Infernal Flames, 

See there his billet lVnix to Wanton Dames, 

His Family Instructor next Indites, 

Him or the Chief of British Hypocrites. 

Of all such Kfnaves] in H[ell] he leads the Van, 

A monstrous Wretch no True Born Englishman." 
These satires prove that journalists of the opposition saw through 
Defoe's deceits. If sonic few oi the Tories still thought, in 17 IS, that 
he was on their side, certainly most of them appreciated the situation. 
Instead of duping the opposition into supporting a paper no longer Tory 
in its opinions, he simply made Mist's subscribers doubt whether the 
journal was still loyal. It seems probable, therefore, that news of the 
deceit that was revealed through Mr. Lee's discoveries in lSo4, would 
not have surprised the Londoner of 17 IS. The Delafaye correspondence 
reveals only what contemporaries knew — that Mist and Defoe jointly 
were trying under a Tory guise to assist the ministry. 

After this partially successful stratagem against the principal Tory 
journal, the ministry in 1 7 1 c > renewed their direct prosecutions. They 
were unusually successful. In March Edward Cave was up in court for 
sending a parliamentary report by news-letter to Robert Raikes of 
Gloucester, and in April William Wye. John Stanley, John Willie-, and 
Elias Delpeuch suffered for the same offence. 88 In June a Roman 
Catholic trick was discovered through Thomas Gawen, a pamphlet seller, 
who swore that he hail been given one hundred copies of Vox Populi Vox 
Dei, an anti-ministerial pamphlet. These he was to distribute free of 
charge.- 1 Another trial, in November, proved fatal to a printer, John 
Matthews, who confessed that he "had been inveighled and seduced 
by the Nonjurors; but own'd the Justice oi his Sentence, and the Right 
of Ring George." His sentence was to be hanged at Tyburn for high 
Boyer, - ate, etc., WW". 293, 364. 

*S. P. Dom. Reg. Vol. 63, fol. 88. 



DEFOE AND WALPOLE IN THE SERVICE OF GEORGE I 111 

treason — so far had the haphazard process of irregular prosecution 
'progressed at the close of 1719. 26 

That such means were ineffective, is proved by the number of con- 
temporary references to the seditious literature in circulation. One 
mercenary patriot offered to kill the Pretender as a way to national 
unity, provided that he himself were well paid. His plea was that he 
lived in the intolerable situation of "hearing and seeing every Day, and 
every Hour of the Day the Slight that is made of the King by the People 
in General: and y e Reflections and Pasquinadoes dispersed in printed 
Pamphlets about y e Streets ... all in favour of y e Pretender." 26 
The repressive measures of Stanhope and Townshend did not end in 
such utter weakness as this writer asserted; in fact, at times the minis- 
try effectively checked opposition plans. 27 But their ingenuity and 
force were inferior to that of their successor, Robert Walpole, who was 
soon to demonstrate, unhampered, his political resourcefulness. 

It may seem that between 1715 and 1721 very little was done for 
the administration except in defensive ways; that Addison and Steele, 
with the Freeholder and Englishman, Second Series, were the only ones 
besides Defoe to write much on that side. But other government papers 
were appearing during these years. The administration immediately 
founded its own Examiner, with the idea that this sheet should imitate 
its Tory prototype in defending "the constitution in church and state." 
William Oldisworth acted as editor for the paper, which totalled fifty-six 
issues between November 3, 1714 and May 14, 1715. Ambrose Philips' 
Freethinker, another important Whig paper, appeared on Mondays and 
Fridays between March 24, 1718 and July 28, 1721. It was not limited 
to party writings, but it came to an end at the breakup of Stan- 
hope's ministry — some sign of its source of funds. Steele seems to 
have helped Philips, 28 undoubtedly one reason why the Freethinker was 
the best English periodical to appear between the Spectator and Johnson's 
Rambler. 

26 Boyer, Political State, etc., XVIII, 459. 

28 J. Paul Muller to Count Bothmar, translated in Delafaye's letter of October 2, 
1719. S. P. Dom. Reg., 63. 

27 For example, the ministry in 1719 paid Jacob Tonson £40,000 for dropping a 
projected edition of Thuanus. Balh MSS, III, 409. 

« Aitken, Life, etc., II, 202n. 



112 PARTV POLITICS \KD ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

Journals of less importance ran for shorter periods. The Reprisal** 
and tho Plain Dealer* hit back at such Jacobite and High Church 
journals as rhomas Lewis's Scourge a single page foe of the government 
that appeared first on February i, 1717, and seems to have reached its 
final weekly issue on November 25. Steele's single issue of the Spinster, 

defence of i clwes, For December 19, L719, was 

an occasional paper, as were the Moderator* 1 and the Director.** The 
last two were issued in defence of the South Sea project, and met the 
attacks oi the Projector] this anti-ministry paper appeared on Monday 
and Friday from February 6 until March M, 1720, but its influence was 
rest rioted by the activity of government spies who collected the issues 

oon as they appeared on the cotTeediouse tables. Philip Horneck, 
whose High German Potior™ won him a live hundred pound place in 
government service, was opposed by the Entertainer, which reached 
forty-three numbers between November 6, 1717. and August 27, 17 IS. 
In addition to these the administration had Read's Weekly Journal, or 
British Gazetteer. Defoe's part in the conduct of Tory journals made 
the task much lighter for such Whig editors, inasmuch as both Mist's 
weekly and Applebee's Original Weekly Journal were under his sur- 
veillance. As contributor and censor he made these lory sheets such 
only in name. 84 

M Four issues appeared between November 22 and December 11, 1717. 

"' li was published en Wednesdays between May 22 and July 17. 1717. A journal 
of the same name, edited by Aaron Hill, ran to one bundled and seventeen issues 
between M.ueli 23, 1724 and May 7, 1725, In this ease, as in all others where no 
specific mention lias been made of a final issue, the data may be incomplete. 

11 Fifteen issues appeared between April 21 and May 24, 1721. 

thirty issues appeared between October 5, 1720 and January 16, 1721. 

" Fifty numbers were published between April ,>0 and October 22, 1714. But 
Horneck was still writing in 1717, for the Entertainer in its earlier issues abuses him 
freely. The latter was one of Mist's publications, so that possibly its change of tone, 
in the later numbers, was due to IVfoc's work. 

" Fee i,l. 273) states that Mist's began on December IS, 1716. When its editor 
tied to France in 1728, the name was changed to Fog's Weekly Journal. It was under 
the new name that it printed Wharton's contributions, which were sent from the con- 
tinent, between September 28, 172S ami 17.^2 Fog's ran to a total of at least two 
hundred titty si\ issues, all full of violent attacks upon the government. Applebee's 
journal was also alive in 17.>2 and was frequently mentioned still later by contemporary 
writers. It was begun in 171S as a critical paper, but soon changed to polities. 

Read's paper was actively defending the government in 17 17: so much is clear 
from copies preserved in the British Museum. Selected articles were printed in book, 
form in 172.^. and in 1733 it was still appearing eaeh week as usual. 



DEFOE and WA1 POl I in mi SERVICE OP GEORGE I 113 

In addition to his work on Mist's and Applebee's papers, Defoe 
accomplished some constructive work for the ministry in other ways. 
It is true that he had no dealings with Addison and Steele, who were 
also writing for the Whigs; it is not probable thai he was on the staff 
of the Daily Commit, which in 17h> was said to "speak the sentiments 
of much greater men" 86 on that side. Possibly, however, he was the 
one to suggest that the Commit he reestablished ill apparent opposition 
to the government— as it was on October 24, 1710, under the caie of 
Meers in (he Old Bailey. 86 The plan has the marks of a Defoe link. 
But apart from these operations Defoe engaged in some work that defin- 
itely bears his name. A new Whig sheet, the Whitehall Evening Post, 
was created for his particular use, and thrice a week from September 18, 
1718, until about June 1720 it published his comments upon affairs. 
Mr. Lee believes that the Daily Post was also established especially for 
Defoe, and that from the fust issue of October 4, 1719, until April 25, 
1725, it regularly contained his political articles." Whether or not 
Defoe constantly produced party literature for all these journals, enough 
matter can be attributed to him without appealing to internal evidence 
to rank him as the most prolific writer on the side of the ministry. 

In August 1719 appeared a new paper, the London Journal™ whose 
editors later became very influential. Articles againsl the South Sea 
scheme brought them to Walpole's attention, and during 1720 the violent e 
of their attacks made the London Journal one of the best known papers 
in circulation. Cato's letters, which evoked bitter replies from the 
Weekly Journal; or Saturday's Post, appeared in the numbers issued 
between November 1720 and December 1723. Previous to this work 
John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, the editors, had opposed I he High 
Church party with their Independent Whig, which ran through at leat t 
fifty-three numbers between January 20, 1720 and January 4, 1721. 
Both periodicals were frequently reprinted. Besides the articles of the 
two editors the Journal contained contributions from Archibald Hutche- 
son and Lord Molesworth. Gordon and Trenchard are noteworthy for 
their remarkable effrontery in the face of threatening prosecutions. 
Apparently the government officials realized that suits for seditious libel 
would not serve in this case— even though, as one contemporary wrote, 
their articles were "very well composed, definite in their exposure of 

36 [J. Menzies) to Thomas Bayard [L. IneseJ, August 2, 1710. Stuart MSS, II, 344. 

M Fox Bourne, II, 107. 

37 1, 308. 

'» The first issue was tailed the Thursday Journal. 



114 PARTV POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOT RNALISM 

state abuse, and might well have disturbed the ministry." 89 Instead of 
prosecuting, Walpole proposed that the government should buy in the 
paper, and this was done. As late as February 1733 the London Journal 

was still referred to as a ministerial organ. 40 

This purchase marks a turning point in the history of party writing. 
Defoe had independently bought off a few opposing writers, and such 
an expedient had been used occasionally before his work under Town- 
shend. but after 1721 Walpole made this a regular practice. By means 
of purchase or subsidy he gained control of all but a few of the valuable 
mediums of publicity. Anti-ministerial writers were placed on the pen- 
sion lists, with the result that political writing rapidly fell off in amount 
and in quality. Even administration writers lost individuality as the 
subsidy system continued to strengthen a few journals at the expense of 
others no longer needed. 

The effect of Walpole's measures appeared before the end of George Ps 
reign. On May IS. 1723, the editor of the hostile Freeholder's Journal 
concluded h.is last issue with the following comment: "The crowd of 
papers which encumber the Town, and make the tables o\ the coffee- 
house look like the counter oi a pamphlet-shop, persuaded him that it 
was high time his paper should die. . . "It has been dead.*' he wrote, 
"some time in its political capacity, which was the soul and spirit oi it. 
anil when the Constitution either of a Government or a Journal is broken, 
when the liberty oi a subject or writer is restrained, the consequence 
must be to languish out the remains of Life in a slow decay." 41 With 
the town still full of party papers, some were then falling before the new- 
modes of attack. "Meanwhile the St. James Journal, founded as a 
Thursday paper on May 3, 1722, was vigorously expressing the con- 
tempt of the ministry writers for the opposition. As noted in its final 
issue. 1? it had been established when "a parcel of madmen'" had "by 
print got hold of public sentiment." solely in order to plead for the govern- 
ment. The early numbers warmly attacked the London Journal, the 
rge, and the Freeholder's Journal, and during the year of issue it was 
Walpole's best medium. 

19 Manuscript note in the British Museum copy of Cote's Litters. 

"BudgelTs Bee, p. 40. The editor then had .i custom house post. A writer in 
the Gentleman 's Magazine for 1734 (TV, °P asserted that the ministry bought the 
paper after Trenchard and Gordon had given it up, about 17 Jo. Thomas Osborne 
was then made editor. 

<l No. 7o. Ma\ IS, L723. It had appeared hrst on January 31, 1722, Burn, p. 47. 

"May 18, 1723, 



DEFOE AND WALPOLE IN THE SERVICE OF GEORGE I 1 15 

In 172.}, however, it was accessary to make special provision for dis- 
crediting the Duke of Wharton's True Briton, which on June 3 began to 
attack the ministry. Many contemporary news-letters contain com- 
ments upon this hold supporter of the Pretender and of Atlerhury, all 

of them indicating that Walpole was perplexed at the futility of his sub- 

sidy method against the determination of a wealthy nobleman. In 
August one writer noted that "notwithstanding y e Author of y e True 
Britton is now said to have so many admirers, there are sev Pens at 

work ag 1 him, particularly y e Flying Post, Pasquin, and y l called y c 
Britton;" 48 another wrote thai the editor, "notwithstanding his Printer 
is taken up almost as often as y e Same is pub , Still goes on with his 
reflections on y° late proceedings of y e Parliament and of Ministry and 
also Places Pensions &C." 44 Inasmuch as thousands of the True Briton 
were being scattered throughout the country, the paper was having great 
effect upon public opinion. To offset this Walpole still had at hand the 
older Whig journals and Pasquin, founded on November 28, 1722;" 5 but. 
they were not sufficient. Consequently on August 14, 1723, he brougbl 
out the Briton to oppose Wharton's paper. Of the new sheet one writer 
said, "Y e Author promises to keep Pace with y e Writer of y e True 
Briton from Week to Week and Root up his Hemlock and Henbane as 
fast as they sprout." 40 The plan was successful, for on February 15, 
1724, the True Briton announced that its last issue would appear on the 
following Monday. 17 Triumphing over their fallen adversary, Walpole's 
aids immediately began an Honest True Briton, which ran from February 
21 until June 8. 48 These journals, as the True Briton asserted,™ were 
edited by " Hackney-Scriblers" who in Queen Anne's time had been 
employed to "accuse the Men that then were at the Helm, of breach of 
Trust, for having put an End to a long and Expensive War by the Treaty 
of Utrecht"; in 1723 they were employed to write "in Favour of Alliances 

43 News-letter of August 29, 1723: Add. MS 27, 980, fol. 136. 

44 News-letter of August 20, 1723: ibid., fol. 127b. 

46 It appeared sixteen times after this date as a weekly and then at irregular inter- 
vals on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to No. 120 on March 27, 1724. Burn, 
p. 48. 

« News-letter of August IS, 1723: Add. MS 27, 980, fol. 123b. 

47 News-letter of February 15, 1724: ibid., fol. 179b. 

48 It was not, as Burn states (p. 50), issued against the True Briton, which was 
then defunct. Walpole's Briton ran at least until February 1726; issues of that date 
are preserved in the British Museum. Burn also errs in dating the first issue August 7; 
actual publication was a week later. 

"No. 13, July 15, 1723. 



116 PART* POLITICS A\p ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

altered into on the same Foundation." This charge oi changed opinions 
because of subsidy was unanswerable. The writers for Walpole frankly 
admitted that they served the court, 80 and observed that following the 
establishment of the subsidy plan there had boon "an almost universal 

Revolt" of the opposition journalists. M The moans employed by the 

ministry were too well known to endure denial, and probably the writers 

tor the state tolt no need of concealing their source oi income. 

Walpole also pursued the old methods oi checking the opposition 
through arrest and prosecution. The printer Redmayne, who had boon 
prosecuted in 1719, M was taken up in 1722 on a new charge. 83 Then in 

1723 ho paid a tine of three hundred pounds on another score before 
beginning a year sentence. 81 With him in this last affair was another 
printer named Philips, who received the same punishment, and Red- 
mayne's son. who was fined two hundred pounds. When released from 
prison, the father was almost immediately involved in a fresh trial, as 
before, through the work of Samuel Buckley and lYlafayo. v The State 
Papers contain many letters regarding similar prosecutions, the corres- 
pondence of Buckley and Delafaye relative to proposed raids upon sedi- 
tious printing houses, and notes from spies offering to sell information. 
Such documents, though less numerous, are to be found in the p. 
left by the preceding ministries. During the last years of George l"s 
reign this work was carried on vigorously, but in no unusual or original 
manner. 

In 1, 23, however, the State Othee made an advance in proposing to 
take a complete census oi .ill newspapers issued from London and the 
oth.er corporate towns. The plan was to classify all journals according 
to their politieal opinions, so that pressure might be put upon sue 
were disaffected towards the King, rownshend is to be credited with 
carrying through the details of the plan, but Walpole was also concerned 
in it. Samuel Xegus. a printer, agreed to gather the data, and in return 
was to have the first vacancy occurring among the King's messengers. 
He reported that in London and Westminster thiriy-four presses were 
issuing matter favorable to fling George. Three he classed as "non- 
Jurors, and four as "Roman-Catholics," He next elassihed thirty-four 
V 34, May 13, ;.: 

January 5. 17.V 

B C« rs, 1714-19: entry for December 22, 17M, 

s . December S. r 

■* News-letter of July 4. r - SO, foL 87b. 

"*.l\i\ I 52,161.40, 



DEFOE and WALPOLE IN THE SERVICE OF GEORGE I 117 

:is "High Fliers," thai is, as strongly opposed t<> the government, so 
thai his investigation proved the opposition press in 172. ■! to be fully 
as strong as thai of the administration. A, to the twenty-eighl pro- 
vincial presses mentioned in liis report, Negus asserted thai thej were 
largely dependenl for mailer upon the "rebellious pamphlets" published 
secretly in London. He urged a more severe supervision of London 
printing houses in order to stop al its source seditious literature thai was 
later to be reprinted all over England." 

The Negus investigation had no immediate results, even for Negus 
himself ; a year later he was still pleading for some posl thai he mighl 

Survive a general boyCOtl placed upon his shop by the London printers. 

The governmenl did nol immediately move against the opposition 
journals, and noi until thenexl reign was anything unusual accomplished 
in the wa) of checking them. The investigation has no special value 
in an accounl of party writing excepl as proof that the older methods 

of repression had been useless. Freedom of speeeh was dearly still 

possible in England in 1723; in fact, it was becoming more and more 

dillieult to prosecute a paper out of existence. The only gain made by 

Walpole during the last years of George I's reign was in getting the 
government press into good condition by buying m sin h effe< live journ- 
alists as Trenchard a.nd Gordon. He had thus put the adminisl rat ion 
into an efficient stale of self defence, so that after 1727 it (onld more 
adequately control public opinion. He had also aided the writers 
towards independence by paying his journalists in money instead of 
rewarding t hem wit h appointments to state offices. 
" Nichols, Anecdotes, etc., I, 289 IT. 



CHAPTER VIII 

POLITICAL AND LITERARY IMPORTANCE OF THE CRAFTS- 
MAN GROUP 

NEW POLITICAL METHODS — THE SECRET INVESTIGATION OF 1742 — WAL- 
POLE'S PAPERS AND EDITORS — SWIFT AND GAY TURNED TO THE 
OPPOSITION — SAVAGE AND YOUNG — FOUNDATION OF BOLINGBROKE'S 

Craftsman — pope's interest — prince Frederick's group of 

DISAFFECTED POLITICIANS — MINOR OPPOSITION JOURNALS — NICHO- 
LAS AMHURST — GAINS IN FREEDOM FOR THE PRESS — THOMSON AND 
OTHER DEPENDENT WRITERS — GENERAL CONSEQUENCES OF LITER- 
ARY PATRONAGE. 

The change of rulers did not bring Robert Walpole's ministry to an 
end. He continued in control of state affairs from 1727 until 1742, and 
during that term of years completed many plans that he had merely 
begun during the reign of George I. Walpole's treatment of the journal- 
ists is typical of his methods. He continued to subsidize a few papers 
heavily, and also to buy off or to prosecute troublesome writers for the 
opposition; such had been his practice before. Very soon the profession 
of journalism under political control became unprofitable for the great 
majority, because only a few writers were needed under his centralized 
system of news dispersal. That the newspaper became merely part of a 
large organization, was but one result of Walpole's methods; everything 
that could be made effective for party ends was incorporated into his 
broad plan. 

Other means to the same end of winning popular favor for the admin- 
istration lessened still further the value of London party journals. 
Walpole encouraged the people in country districts to attend political 
meetings, which were then being called for the first time, under state 
supervision. He also electioneered for administration candidates through 
the provincial press. Both of these modern means to popular favor were 
new in 1722, when a London journal commented angrily upon such a 
"scandalous method" as this open solicitation of votes by means of 
the news column. 1 Genuinely unprincipled means were employed when 
state political materials were dispersed through the London post-office 
free of charge, while opposition papers, though properly posted, were 
often held from circulation. Such was the fate of issues of the Crafts- 

1 Applebee's Original Weekly Journal, January 6, 1722: quoted in Wright, p. 60. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE " CRAFTSMAN" GROUP 119 

man, whose editors in November 1728 charged the ministry wich sending 
administration journals to the addresses taken from copies mailed to its 
own subscribers. 2 All these circumstances injured the craft as a whole 
and groat 1)' lessened the importance of the individual writer. The whole 
process of editing and distributing journals fell into a routine, and the 
generous subsidies were disbursed to only a few papers. 

Facts regarding the extent of Walpole's subsidies to government 
papers appear in the findings of the Secret Committee of 1742. This 
committee, appointed at the instance of the elder Pitt, sought to fix upon 
Walpole the blame for a wasteful use of public money. Incorporated in 
their report is all the information that could be gleaned regarding the 
newspapers dependent upon Treasury funds. 

The Secret Committee was not permitted to examine the private 
accounts of the minister or the King's revenue record. Since King 
George II strongly upheld Walpole in his refusal to make any explana- 
tion of the uses to which he had put Secret Service funds, the investiga- 
tors were compelled to make the most of cross-questioning subordinates 
in the Treasury. Because Secret Service expenditure was for all manner 
of ends that were entered as "without account," Walpole had made 
large use of this means for promoting his party propaganda; for these 
records were not open to examination. When sums were to be paid out 
from this fund, the final recipient was protected by a device of making 
out the Treasury order to men in the government service. These sub- 
ordinates thereupon signed the orders, though they never received the 
money. That was paid to the true beneficiary in currency, whereupon 
the signed receipt bearing the name of a Treasury clerk was duly filed. 3 
Many of the subordinates so implicated refused to testify before the 
Committee, so that very little was learned through cross-examination. 

The facts gathered regarding news subsidies were as definite as any 
others obtained by the Committee. Walpole admitted that he had 
spent £5,000 a year on the newspaper press, and consequently, in their 
general summary the Committee charged £50,007 18s. to this account. 
A check taken from the Calendars of Treasury Books and Papers tallies 
very well with their report in the Commons Journals. 

The Treasury accounts show that very large sums were spent on the 
press between December 4, 1729, and February 6, 1736. William Arnall 

2 No. 126. 

3 See the Commons Journals, (XXIV, 295) for the depositions of John Shepherd, 
a Deputy Messenger, and of Christopher Tilson, a Treasury clerk. The other facts in 
this matter are from Chaytor's translation of Ruville's William Pitt, etc., I, 199, and 
from t e Cat. of Treas. Papers, 1739-41, xii. 



120 PARTS POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

received £9,115 on the account oi the Free Briton. Payments to John 
Walthoe between March 21, 1732 and November 18, 1741 amounted 
to £22, 649 LOs. 8d., which were distributed as follows: for Daily Cour- 
ants and Double C our ants, March 21, 1732 to October 24, 1738, £8, 474 
2s. 4d.; for the Daily Gazetteer, July 1, 1735, to December 30, 1736, 
£4,422 Is. 8d.; for "printing ami other disbursements," January l ). 1739 
to November IS. 1741, £9,753 6s. 8d. Subsidies for the Corn-Cutter's 
Journal between October 1, 1733 and March 25, 1735, amounted to 
£1,222. 10s. W. Wilkins of the London Journal received £3,218 6s. Sd. 
between the dates oi June 5, 17S1 and June 28, 1735/ Much of this 
expenditure was for printing cost, and probably very little went to 
writers aside from the editors. Payments usually were made every 
quarter. 

In two instances the Calendars have separate entries of payments to 
W. Wilkins for writing. From June 5 to November 4, 1731, he earned 
a hundred pounds, so that his annual salary was then about two hundred 
and forty pounds. A later entry shows that in 17S4 he received approx- 
imately eight hundred sixty pounds yearly. 6 It is known from other 
sources that John Henley, editor of the Hyp-Doctor, was paid a hundred 
pounds each year.' William Amall was granted a four hundred pound 
pension in addition to his regular salary — which, added to the total 
recorded in the Journals, shows that he boasted honestly when assert- 
ing that the government paid him in all £10,997 6s, Sd. 

Some government papers were not mentioned in the Treasury lists, 
and yet must have had subsidies. Such are the Hyp-Doctor, Read's Week- 
ly Journal or Br:!:sh Gazetteer, the Flying Post, the Weekly Register, 
the Britisl: Journal, the Briton, and the Honest True Briton. From a 
satire in the Craftsman for August 2, 1735, it is known that the Daily 
Gazetteer was also founded as an administration paper, but it was soon 
merged with the Daily Courant. These papers are to be counted — often 
on their own evidence — as under subsidy. 

The life records of the journalists concerned add little to the Com- 
mittee report. William Amall was the best journalist on the government 
side, but of his case we have little information. He began party writing 
before he was twenty years old — that is, about 17oJ — and was successor 
to Matthew Concanen as editor of the British Journal. Concanen him- 

*Cal. oj Trias. Papers, 17:0.1745, possum. 

" Cat of Tnas. Papers, 1751-54, p, 208; 1735-38, p. 43. 

•This paper is not mentioned in the Journals. It ran from December 15, 1750. 
to January 20, 1741. Burn, p. ol. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE "CRAFTSMAN" GROUP 121 

self, according to Cibber, decided by tossing a coin to seek work from 
the administration, while his friend Sterling, by the same act, went to 
the opposition. 7 He was working on the London Journal soon after the 
government bought that troublesome sheet, and wrote for it a series 
of articles later reprinted (1730) under the title of the Speculatist* His 
quarrel with Pope led to the preservation of his name in a Dunciad note, 
where he is called "a hired scribbler for the Daily Courant." The pay- 
ment for his service was an appointment as attorney-general of Jamaica 
on January 30, 1732. 9 

Another writer, Roger Manley, wrote for the British Journal, or 
the Censor. Little more is known regarding him, and even less concern- 
ing the other administration journalists. In February 1733 a con- 
temporary published in the Gentleman's Magazine his speculations regard- 
ing the various writers on Walpole's side, but his vague allusions are of 
no value to-day. With such meager information one cannot say whether 
or not genuine literary merit was debased by party service. It is more 
probable that the journalists were nothing more than hack-writers. Wil- 
liam Coxe, the authoritative biographer of Robert Walpole, believed that 
the goverment journalists, though paid generously, were of only ordin- 
ary ability. It seems that Walpole ignored the protests of his friends, 
who tried to advise him regarding his choice of writers. 10 Consequently, 
he refused to employ men of far greater merit than any in his service. 

In 1726 Swift was among these unattached party writers in search of 
party favor. Like the others, he debated the question of Walpole's 
future greatness. As it seemed to him doubtful whether the minister 
could retain his place after the death of George I, he imitated many 
other place-hunters in looking elsewhere. Circumstances made clear 
what should be his course. Bolingbroke was then back in England plot- 
ting with Pulteney to break Walpole's power, and the Prince of Wales 
was also showing open hostility to his father's chief advisor. With these 
forces in the field against Walpole, it was evidently wise to take the side 
of the court faction in opposition. Swift, therefore, with an eye only to 
the future, set out to win the good will of the coming king. This he 
hoped to do through the aid of Mrs. Howard, the Prince's mistress; she 
instead of the Princess seemed privately influential. Gay was also in 
the plan, and Pope assisted his friends. With this single purpose Swift 

7 Lives, etc., V, 27. 

8 Burn, p. 52. 

9 The warrant is in the Hardvncke Papers, Add. MS 36, 130, fol. 131. 

10 Coxe, Memoirs, etc., I, 761. 



122 PARTS POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOCKNAIIS14 

returned to England in 17 Jo, fully resolved upon the moans to be used 
in winning the good will of the Prince. He was well received by both 
the Princess and Mrs. Howard, and at first seemed well pleased with his 
prospects. 

Not content, however, with this provision for future patronage and 
employment, Swift determined that he would make what he might out 
of Walpole, the other possible medium to court favor. Or. Birch has 
left a vivid account of the Dean's visit to the minister. 11 lie wrote: 
"In the year l72o Or. Swift went to England in hopes of getting a 
Settlement there, and made one at S r Robert Walpole's Levee at Chelsea, 
where he sat down by the door, and drew the notice of the Company 
by that singularity, which always distinguished him. But nobody knew 
him till Sir Robert entered, who went up to him very obligingly. The 
other without rising up, or other Address, said, 'For God's sake, S r 
Robert, take me out of that cursed Country, and place me somewhere 
in England. 1 "Mr. Dean,' said S 1 Robert, 'I should be glad to oblige 
you, but 1 fear removing you would spoil your Wit. Look on that tree: 
pointing to one under the Window. 1 transplanted it from the [ — ?] 
Soil of Houghton to the river side; but it is good for nothing here.' The 
company laugh'd, and the Dean hurried away without reply." To this 

Dr. birch added, "This happen'd four years before the Dean's Rhapsody 
appear'd. in which S r Robert has his place oi Satire." 

In spite of this unfriendly treatment, Swift continued to hope until, 
at the accession of George 11, he found that Walpole was to be retained 
and that Mrs. Howard's influence was of little value. Then in surprise 
and disgust he turned against the court. He could expect nothing from 
a minister who wanted '"no belter writers than Cibber and the British 
Journalist" [i. e., William Arnall), 1 - but he kept up his intrigues through 
Mrs. Howard, then Duchess of Suffolk. As late as July 27, 1731, tie 
wrote most friendly letters advancing his own claims. Ki By then, how- 
ever, he lunl begun to send complimentary messages to the opposition 
leaders through Cay and Pope," and it is probable that he was secretly 

a Birck MS 4,223, EoL 32a 

u Pope to Swift, February. L722 28. Pope, Works, VII, 114. 
lountess oi Suffolk. Letters, etc., pp. 14-16. 

M Of many such letters written between 1729 and 1731, see particularly Swift's 
letter to Gay (Pope, Works, Vll. 230), dated June : i >. 1731, In this be « cote boldly, 
"I always told you Mrs. "Howard" was good for nothing but to be a rank courtier. 
1 eare not whether she ever writes to me or no. She has cheated us all, and maj go 
bang herself and so may her [mistress]." Similar u are in several letters in 

Pope's Werks, Ml. tr 230 



IMPORTANCE OF THE " CRAFTSMAN" GROUP 123 

writing for the Craftsman. One contemporary asserted that Swift was 
writing against Walpole as early as 1728, and thai he had tillered into 
an agreement to that end with the printer Mist.' ; ' 

At the accession of George If, John Gay acted still more openly 
against Walpole in order to show his disgust with the proposal that he 
become gentleman-usher to the Princess Louisa. The disappointment 
came after he had waited in expectation for years, with nothing more 
than a hundred fifty pound post as lottery commissioner, which had 
been given him for his verses in honor of the first George." 1 With his 
usual want of logic, Gay could see no relation between tin- insignificanl 
place offered him and the fact that he had previously dedicated his 
Shepherd's Week to Bolingbroke. He also forgot that he was under sus- 
picion of having written anonymous satires against the government. 
Through Mrs. Howard's influence he kept his place as lottery commis- 
sioner until 17.31, but had nothing more. His final break with Walpole 
occurred at the presentation of The Beggar's Opera on January 29, 1728. 
In this he frankly satirized the minister. 17 Thereafter he became "one 
of the destructions to the peace of Europe, the terror of Ministers," 
and "the chief writer on the Craftsman." 1 * Gay's turning to the oppo- 
sition was another consequence of Walpole's unreadiness to make terms 
with competent party writers who, like Swift, were unattached at the 
accession of George II. 

He did not always show disregard for literary merit, for he treated 
Lord Hervey with the greatest liberality. That nobleman changed his 
political coat in 1727, after he had been granted a warrant for a thousand 
pound pension. His writings at once became most effective on the side 
of the ministry. Sir Gharles Hanbury Williams, even greater than 
Hervey as a satirist, also began in 1739 to write for Walpole, but his 
best work was to be done after that minister's dismissal. Another 
writer, Joseph Mitchell, joined himself so completely to the side of the 

16 An Essay upon the Taste and Writings of the Present Time, etc., (1728), p. 8. 
All these facts regarding Swift's latest political interests have been ignored by Dr. 
Rudolph Meye, in his Die politische Slellung Jonathan Swifts, Leipzig, 1903. 

w An Epistle to a Lady, Occasioned by the Arrival of Her Royal Highness, the Princess 
of Wales. 

17 The story of The Beggar's Opera belongs to eighteenth century stage history. 
Its fame had a great deal to do with the stringent Licensing Act passed in 1737. The 
same is true of Fielding's plays. For a full account of the stage satires see Wai 
Nicholson's Struggle for a Free Stage in London, pp. 20-71. 

u Arbuthnot to Swift, London, March 19, 1729. Swift, Works, XVII, 233. 



\2\ PARTY POLITICS AN1> KNGUSH JOURNALISM 

ministry as to be dubbed "Sir Robert Walpole's poet." He had been 
in favor at court since L720 and was simply continued under the now 
ruler. These three, of actively serviceable writers dependent upon the 
minister's bounty, were the ones most noteworthy for literary merit 

rwo poets, Edward Young and Richard Savage, wore personally 
favored by Walpole, but not for their party work. The consideration 
given Savage was not significant, as it was only a gift of the customary 
twenty guineas for a dedication. In the same year, \~2 {) . the poet had 
bettor results from a dedication to the Queen, through which he got a 
grant of fifty pounds and the same sum annually after that until 17S7, 
the year of her death. Savage's friends drew a promise from Walpole in 
1735 that he would give the writer the next court vacancy with an income 

DOt exceeding two hundred pounds, but he failed to keep his agreement. 
As Savage also sought patronage from the Prince oi Wales, the minister 
probably felt justified in stopping the poet's annual pension instead of 
increasing his gifts from the state; at any rate, it was he who caused the 
discontinuance at the Queen's death, lake Swift in 17 26, Savage over- 
played the game of favor-seeking when he ventured into the camps of 
both court factions. 

Young began more judiciously by appealing to none but sympathi- 
zers of the King. His first patron, the Duke of Wharton, had left 
England in 1725. Having lost the hundred pound annuity given by 
this patron after 1719, the poet turned to the Whig leaders. In 1725 
Dodington took Young under his protection, and was properly rewarded 
in the dedication to the "Third Satire." In that year Young also dedi- 
cated his first two satires judiciously, one to the Puke of Dorset, the 
other to Sir Spencer Compton, Speaker of the House of Commons. The 
following year he rounded out his tribute of praise to influential men 
about court by dedicating to Walpole his "Seventh Satire" and his 
poem, "The Instalment." For all this he was repaid on May IS, 1726, 
with a two hundred pound pension. Not satisfied. Young then took 
orders as a means to church favor, and before July 1 of that year was 
made chaplain to the Princess oi Wales. 18 

Under a new sovereign Young renewed his suit in a poem called 
Oo i -. winch was prompted by the first parliamentary address of George 
11. The only apparent result was an appointment as King's chaplain, 
a purely honorary post that gave the poet right with three others to 

19 rhis is on the authority of Thomas Hearne. According to M. Thomas, the 
authoritative biographer of Young, the pension became operative from April 0. 17 Jo. 
The facts herein regarding Young are from his work. pp. l >0-21o. 



IMPORTANCE <>!• THE "CRAFTSMAN" GROUP 125 

attend courl during June each year. M. Thomas has discovered the 
explanation for the indifference <>f the King, 20 in ;i letter of April 1756, 
from Benjamin Victor to Richard Griffith. The writer oi this letter 
referred to Bolingbroke's attacks upon Walpole in the Craftsman, and 
mentioned an instance when he personally had warned Young for the 
sake of his reputation at courl to avoid Bolingbroke. It seems that the 
puet had already endangered his standing by meeting with opposition 
leaders. Very shortly after this incidenl Young openly joined Prince 
Frederick's court, so thai apparently Victor's warning had proved use- 
less. Shortl) afterwards, in 1730, the poet left London to spend most 
of his later years in the re< tory at Welwyn, Hertfordshire, a place in the 
gift of All Souls College. Several of his letters during this period reflect 
his disappointment at the Kind's ncglcc t. One written on July 9, 1758, 

to the Duchess of Portland, displays his feeling as follows: "... I 

have lately, by a Dedication taken on me to put his Majesty in mind 
of my long service, but, I take it for granted, without any manner of 
effect. . . For as I was Chaplain to his Majesty even at Leicester 
House, and as all other chaplains there were soon preferred after his 
Majesty's accession but myself, and as many, many years ago the: Duke 
of Newcastle promised me, through the Duke of Portland's kindly pre- 
senting me to him, preferment after two then to be- provided for before 
me, and as there is no instance to be found of any other so long in service 
under total neglect, there must be some particular reason for my very 
particular, as 1 cannot possibly guess at it. I most ardently long to know. 
Your Grace's interest with persons in power is at least so great as to be 
able to gratify my very natural and very strong curiosity a little in this 
point." 21 This represents Young's attitude years after the events that 
determined his standing at court, when he had no expectation of patron- 
age except through a renewal of the King's favor. Had the Prince 
of Wales lived to succeed his father, George II, Young would have been 
royally patronized. Hut the death of Frederick ended his expecta- 
tions, as it did of all the weaker dependents in the opposition circle. 
Thereafter Dodington's individual patronage was Young's chief support. 

* 
Hitherto the Craftsman has been mentioned frequently enough to 
indicate that it was a very influential journal during the reign of 
George II. This outspoken opponent of Walpole's administration 

20 p. 120. 

21 Balh MSS, I, 323-24. 



i:<> PAR TV rOHTK'S \NP INC.llSH JOURNALISM 

appeared first on December 5, 1726." Bolingbroke was its foster- 
father. Unable to endure the inaction put upon him by his disenf ranch- 
isement, he set up the paper as a medium for expressing his own views, 
ami chose Nicholas Amhurst, bul recently expelled from Oxford iov his 
biting satires, as the first editor. Under their guidance the Craftsman 

rapidly became spokesman for all having grievances against Walpole, 
whether they were writers or politicians; of the former sort. Swift and 
Gay were the most prominent. 

Since bolingbroke was behind the new journal, it did not necessarily 
need popular support. The paper soon gained a wide circulation, but 
never depended upon its subscription lists. Tope aided his friend 
materially, for through him bolingbroke fell in with Swift. Gay, and the 
politicians who made the Twickenham villa a meeting place, m this 
way Pope became an important figure in the opposition group. He seems 
to have used the Grub Street Journal to express in writing his dis 
for Walpole. and his enemies accused him of doing much more.-' Some 
years after identifying himself thus with the opposition group. Pope open- 
ly attacked the ministry in his brilliant satire of 1738, and later boasted 
to Swift that the Prince of Wales had shown approval by giving him 
COStly presents."' The prosecution of Whitehead about this time for 
writing a satire called Manners was the indirect check put upon Pope's 
growing party seal. 

In spite of his silence thereafter on political topics, lie was still a willing 
host for all members of the Craftsman party, bins group slowly enlarged 
after its inception in 1726 as one discontented nobleman after another 
joined bolingbroke. Soon it was composed of the chief opponents of 
the ministry. The Pulteneys, Wyndham, and Chesterfield were of the 
number before 17_ n >. and all either wrote for the weekly issues or assisted 
with funds. When Walpole's Excise bill went to defeat in 1733, Ches- 
terfield became much more active, and a; the same time George l.yt- 
tleton went over to the Prince, but the greatest addition came in 17S4, 
when upon Lady SutTolk's withdrawal from public affairs Prince Freder- 
ick became the recognized head of the opposition. Thereafter plans for 

"It was published weekly to No. 511. April 17. 1736, and the collected issues 
wore reprinted the next year, 

■ ; the //\ '.ways hostile to Pope, charged him (No, 48, November 9, 

1731) willi writing against Walpole. as follows: "'We are told that Mr. Pfop]e wrote 
the Poem call'd Tkt DawUy Farm and the \ S •-'. besides several Letters in 

so. he is very ungrateful to some of his Subscribers and benefac- 
tors, but is Gratitude to a Protestant a tye on a Papist. . .?" 

' 1 otter ot" May 17. L739. Herb. \ 11. 374. 



[IMPORTANCE OT THE " CRAFTSMAN" GROUP 127 

hindering Walpole and the K in^ became much more definite. By 1737 
George Hul»l> Dodington, former lord of the Treasury, was also in Fred< i 
irk's court, and though by thai time the Craftsman was no Longer in 
circulation, he shared in the later literary and political interest thai 
made the group famous. Lord Bathurst, Orrery, Cobham, and Queens- 
berry were other prominent noblemen to come thus into intimate rela- 
tions with Pope, Young, Thomson, Mallet, and Glover. 

Of the opposition leaders who were themselves writers for the Crafts- 
man, Bolingbroke himself was the most capable. He lent sonic variety 
to tin.- contest when he published his four Occasional Writer pamphlets 
during January and February 1727; in these he ironically offered aid to 
Walpole as a hack-writer looking for employment. Other noteworthy 
articles for the opposition began to appear in the fall of 1728 in Fog's 
Journal, which was but a continuation of Mist's Weekly Journal.' 21 ' A 
little later, after the discontinuance of Fog's, Chesterfield and Lord 
Lyttleton began Common Sense, with the declared purpose of taking 
"from the shoulders of the Craftsman some part of the burthen, which 
every man who is laboring against corruption labors under." 88 Before 
1737, when this sheet first appeared, journalists in this frank fashion 
dared to charge the ministry with dishonesty — largely because the 
Craftsman had done so before. A special function of Common Sense was 
to rail at the writers for the ministry, with broad references to the pen- 
sions and fees to be gained in such service. 27 

Only one other strong opposition paper appeared against Walpole, 
but this one, the Champion, or Evening Advertiser, was quite as bold as 
its predecessors. Under Fielding's direction it was issued three times 
weekly from November 15, 1739, to July 1741, and was in general circu- 
lation until March 10, 1742. James Ralph was one of his collaborators. 
In all of these papers is discernible a settled policy. With liberal back- 
ing they tried solely to discredit Walpole by whatever methods were 
possible. Heavy subsidies were needed for such plans, but as Nicholas 
Amhurst was probably the only one engaged in the work simply for 
personal gain, little of the expenditure was for news writers. Swift, Gay, 
and Pope were undoubtedly rewarded, but not by direct payment. 
Consequently the life records of Amhurst must supply whatever infor- 
mation is to be obtained regarding the generosity of the Craftsman ^roup. 

26 Fog's Journal appeared weekly from September 28, 1728, until it reached a 
total of "at least two-hundred and fifty-six issues." Rum, p. 59. 

" From the "Printer's address to the Reader" in the first issue. 

'■" (i(H)d specimens of such abuse arc in the issues for July 8, August 26, and Octo- 
ber 7, 1738. 



128 TARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

Most of the facts have been set down in James Ralph's interesting 
book. The Case of Authors by Profession or Trade. He wrote of his 
contemporary: "After having boon a Drudge of his Party for the best 
Part of twenty years together, [Amhurst] was as much forgot in the 
famous Compromise of 1742, as it he had never been born. . .! And 
when he died of what is called a broken heart, which happened within a 
few months afterwards, became indebted to the Charity of his very 
Bookseller for a Grave." 28 Though this stands without contradiction, 
it is improbable that Amhurst worked for the opposition during the ten 
years that the Craftsman appeared, without fair payment for service. 
Ralph was himself a writer for Fielding's Champion and perhaps was 
shabbily treated; for in serving men fully competent to write their own 
news articles neither journalist was in a position to demand large pay- 
ments. 

Apart from its direct political value the Craftsman had a part in pro- 
moting the cause of independent journalism. It gave final impetus to 
the movement towards democratic freedom of speech by demonstrating 
the possibility of publishing violent anti-ministerial news articles through- 
out a long period. Walpole's suits against the paper failed of their pur- 
pose because the journal was well supplied with funds: whenever the 
publisher was taken up for printing libels, his backers gave bail and at 
once the paper resumed its issues. The boldness of the Craftsman was 
also responsible for a growing tolerance on the part of the government in all 
matters of public interest. Before George II's reign, regulations prohibiting 
the publication of parliamentary debates had been rigorously enforced; 
but as the Craftsman kept up its attacks, discipline relaxed. The acts 
passed by the House of Commons in 1722 and in 1728 were not effective, 
for very soon the debates in abridged form appeared in print. 29 In June 
1732 the Gentleman's Magazine published such accounts, 30 and the Lon- 
don Magazine soon imitated its rival. In 1736 Dr. Johnson made such 
reporting a leading feature of Cave's journal. By the year 1742 it was 
no Longer venturesome to print in detail whatever was said on the floor 
of the House. This change dates back to the aggressive work of Boling- 
broke's paper. 

:8 p. 32. 

D. M. Ford's article, "Growth of Freedom of the Press," in the Eng. Hist. 
Rev., IV (1889), 2. 

30 It is a common error to consider 1736 as the earliest date, probably because 
of Dr. Johnson's part in the matter. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE "CRAFTSMAN" CROUP 129 

It is easy to prove the part played by the Craftsman in enlarging the 
freedom of the press. Correspondence passing between state officials 
shows that the government was gradually relinquishing plans for prose- 
cuting all party organs, simply because of the ineffectiveness of suits 
against that powerful journal. Philip Yorke, Attorney-General, was 
often in communication with the Duke of Newcastle as to ways of 
protecting the names of the King and his minister, but they hesitated 
to go beyond the infliction of light punishments for individual offences. 
In 1721 Newcastle had overruled the appointment of a "general Libell- 
Committee" that would have handled prosecutions too roughly, 31 but 
not through leniency; it was useless to arrest editors for reprinting from 
old journals, libels upon William III — libels that applied equally well 
to other foreign-born kings. In Yorkc's words, ". . . When the 
Defend 1 can produce a publick history of y e times, touching which he 
writes, from whence he only copied, I should conceive that would exclude 
all Constructions and be a defence in point of law. As to the Craftsman, 
it is only a generall Dissertation concerning Speeches [and] Communica- 
tions from the Throne to Parliament [and] tho' there is a saucy air in his 
manner of treating the Subject, yet I have not found any passage in it, 
that would support a Prosecution." 32 This weakness in the government 
case against the Craftsman compelled the ministry to put into circulation 
about 1,400 copies of each of its three leading journals at every issue, and 
to print off some 33,000 pamphlets every year. In addition to the cost 
of these publications, about £20,000 were needed annually for other 
forms of publicity. Freedom of speech was at last a reality, 33 so that 
the government's only course lay in a use of such publicity mediums as 
were at hand for every party or faction. 

The Craftsman group accomplished more than this; they gave private 
patronage to the writers that under former reigns would have had sup- 

31 Letter of P. Yorke, March 26, 1732; 5. P. Dom., George II, Vol. 26, fol. 58. It 
is unaddressed, but the endorsement on the outside is in Newcastle's hand. 

32 Letter of June 29, 1730: ibid., Vol. 19, fol. 26. 

33 Craftsman, No. 265. July 31, 1731. This statement as to the new liberty of 
the press is not made in ignorance of the Craftsman suits, but they were moderate in 
comparison with those before it appeared. Then death was a common penalty for 
seditious printing, and such men as Mist and his helper Wolff fled to the continent 
for safety. The Craftsman writers were fortunate by comparison. Probably the 
worst case against Francklin, the printer, was tried on December 3, 1731. For print- 
ing "A Letter from the Hague" he was fined a hundred pounds, served a prison 
sentence of a year, and signed £ 1 ,000 bonds to keep the peace for seven years. The 
suit did not change the policy of the paper. 



130 PARTS POLITICS \.\n ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

port Erom the nobles oi the court. A genuine love for literature Led 

several of those opposition politicians to patronize privately, and so to 
demonstrate anew the good and evil consequences of such practices. 

The career of the poet Thomson illustrates how readily such men as 
Lyttleton, Dodington, Bolingbroke, and Prince Frederick assisted needy 

writers. Thomson had looked for patronage immediately upon his 
arrival in London in 172o. His dedication oi '"Winter" to Sir Spencer 
Compton brought in only the usual twentypounds; similar procedure with 
"Summer" (^ 1 7 JS > brought at the time of publication no response at all 
from Dodington. In 1728 he failed twice more, for the Countess of 
Hertford gave nothing for the dedication of "Spring," and Walpole paid 
no heed to the appeal made as preface to the "Poem Sacred to the 
Memory of Isaac Newton." 'The failure of 'Thomson's early petitions 
was mitigated by the success of his published works, particularly by a 
profit of four hundred fifty-four guineas in 1730 from subscription sales 
of "Autumn." From other sales he had made £1,000 before 1729. 
'These successes are proofs of the new conditions that were making 
private or party support needless; yet Thomson soon had that assistance 
ell. From late in 1733 until February 14, 17^7. he held a place as 
secretary of briefs under Ford Talbot's favor, a post yielding three 
hundred pounds that he lost at the death of his patron. Thereupon 
he willingly followed Lyttleton's suggestion and joined Prince Frederick's 
court. The Prince granted him a pension of a hundred pounds, which 
he received from 1738 until 1748 as return for verses complimentary 
to the opposition leaders." 1 

Aside from his hundred pound pension Thomson received fifty 
pounds annually from Dodington and also quarters in his house. 85 Later, 
in 1744, when Walpole had lost control of affairs, Lyttleton used his 
power as a Ford of the Treasury to make the poet surveyor-general of 
the Leeward Islands at three hundred pounds a year. This addition 

M Two of his writings after 17o7 deserve special mention because of their political 

significance. In 1738 the newly-appointed examiner of plays prohibited Thomson's 

rd and EUanora. The play was full of linos complimentary to the Prince, and 

consequently Walpole's agent used his power to protect the administration against 
this pleader for popular good will. Again, in 1740, when all the opposition writers 
were attacking the government for laxity in its troubles with Spain, Thomson in 
collaboration with Mallet produced " The Masque of Alfred," which was devised as 
an incitement to war. both were proofs of Thomson's complete willingness to assist his 
patrons through the use of political material in his writings. 

Dodington's Piary, p. 72. The praises of Dodington in the Castle of Indole tic e 
repaid the obligation. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE " CRAFTSMAN" GROUP 131 

raised his income between 1744 and 1747 to a total of four hundred 
fifty pounds derived directly from political sources. 

The favors extended to Thomson were greater than those granted 
David Mallet, his collaborator in the "Masque of Alfred." He also 
had worked constantly for patronage, and probably had his friend's 
assistance. In 1729 Thomson commiserated him because poets were 
neglected, 38 and perhaps his suggestions brought Mallet into favor with 
Frederick before 1742. In May of that year he was made under-secretary 
to the Prince at a salary of two hundred pounds, 37 and soon after was 
granted a pension of a hundred pounds. Though his party service was 
insignificant, he at least aided Thomson in his political playwriting. 88 

Other poets favoring the opposition party were aroused particularly 
by the events of 1737 and 1738. Pope then wrote his famous satire, 
and Johnson, in his London, expressed a disgust that later on he regretted 
having aired so vehemently. Richard Glover won high favor among the 
opposition with his Leonidas (1737), particularly with Lord Cobham, to 
whom he dedicated the work. One writer says that as a result he was 
"patronized, in a manner scarcely intelligible to the present reader, by 
that nobleman, by his party, and indeed by the whole Opposition. . ."; 39 
yet no specific records show what Glover received, except from the 
Prince and Dodington. Prince Frederick is said to have given him five 
hundred pounds with the remark that this was done "in order to enable 
him to return to business and to free him from the necessity of all Court 
despondencies." 40 With the gift of money was a fine set of the works of 
English poets. Dodington's help came in 1761, some years later, when 
Glover was brought into parliament. Another writer, Henry Brooke, 
showed his spirit in 1739 by writing a play called Gustavus Vasa, the 
Deliverer of His Country. This was so bitterly abusive of Walpole that 

3 « Letter of September 20, 1729 (Phil. Soc., IV, 35): ". . . It is high time 
that the poets, who have been all along bubbles to the world, given them the greatest 
pleasure, and received little in exchange, began to think of some craft. . ." 

"Gent. Mag. XII (1742), 275. 

38 Mallet continued political writing until his death in 1765. The last three 
years of his life Lord Bute supported him through appointment as inspector of the 
Exchequer books at an annual salary of three hundred pounds. 

39 Memoirs andCorrespondence of George, Lord Lyttleton, etc. I, 99. 

40 "Parson Etouffe's "Free and Impartial Reflexions on the Character, Life, 
and Death of Frederick Prince of Wales." Philob. Soc, VIII. 



1.>J PART? POLITICS AM) ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

it was prohibited. As usual in such cases, 41 the opposition showed their 
resentment by subscribing liberally for the printed version, so that 
Brooke sold a thousand copies, Through keeping up his party writing 
he finally became a barrack master in 17-15 with the salary of four 

hundred pounds yearly. Two others, William Warlnirton ami James 
Ralph, were taken up by the Prince, but their service was apparently 

not rewarded largely. Warburton's service was much less than Ralph's. 

who wrote tor tlu I lor this he seems to have had a pension 

of two hundred pounds, but that fell far short oi his expectations. 

The full meaning oi the patronage noted in these scattered details. 
is to be found in some illuminating contemporary comments. Men of 

the eighteenth century were as quick as we to realize the evils of such 
dependence as Steele and Addison endured after turning from letters to 
politics. These two, like their fellow craftsmen, were formed by events 
into politicians instead of into men of letters. In comparing the state 

of letters in England from 1710 to 171-1 with that of 1 7 Jo. Bolingbroke, 
knowing both periods intimately, wrote: " The celebrated Tailers and 
Spectators had no reward except from booksellers and fame. Hut when 
those authors made the discovery I have made, and applied their talents 
belter, in writing the Englishman and the Freeholder, one was soon 
created a knight, and the other became a secretary of state." 1 '" James 
Ralph also explained Addison's prosperity thus. ". . . Everybody," 
he wrote, "may not . . . recollect, that his party-services con- 
tributed more to it than all his laudable efforts to reform our manners 
and refine our taste. "'- ; Though neither in his comment detracts from 
the reputation of Steele and Addison as men of letters, both clearly saw 
the relative importance of their two sources of income. The Fatter, the 
Spectator, and the Guardian could never have furnished means during 
their few years of existence to keep Addison and the wasteful Steele. 
These periodicals simply formed the basis for their real prosperity and 

41 Ralph writes in hi- \ . . . oj Sir Robari ll'..\':V.Y, (p 

"Every one remembers how right l>is Lordship Shaftesbury's Opinion was. as to the 

printing of Plays thai wore refused by the Licensor, and even as to the writing of Plaj s 
on Purpose to have them refused, that they might he printed only. Two or three 
Pieces we have had. under Names of the first Class in the poetical World, which were 
sold by Subscription at treble the ordinary Price, in order to compensate, with less 
11.: ..id. the Trout it was supposed might have accrued from them, had they been 
represented with success," 

■ 7'/;.- OecasMiMJ Writer, No. t. h>?.<. 1. 179 80 

** Th. I etc, p. 34 



IMPORTANCE OP TEE "craftsman" GROUP 133 

contemporary reputation by giving demonstration to the Whig leaders 
of their fitness for public service. 

As early as 1710 Lord Shaftesbury pointed oul the trend of literary 
and political mailers, when he wrote: ". . . Hut supposing it were 
possible f<>r the hen. or statesman to In- absolutely unconcerned lor his 
memory, or what came after him, yel fo] thi pn enl merely, and during 
his own lime, it musl he of importance to him | () stand fair with the 
men of leiiers and ingenuity, and to have the character and repute of 
being favourable to their art. Be the illustrious person ever so high or 
awful in his station, he mm I have des< riptions made of him in verse and 
prose, under feigned or re;d appellations. If he he omitted in sounding 
ode <»r lofty epic, he musi be unj al least in doggerel and plain I allad. 
The people will need have his effigies, though they see his pei on < i so 
rarely; and if he refuses to sit to the good painter, then an- others who, 
to oblige the public, will lake thedesign in hand. . . 

"lis no small advantage, even in an absolute government, for a 
ministry to have wit on their side, and engage the me,, f merit in this 
kind to he their well-wishers and friends. And in those slates where 
ambitious leaders often contend for the supreme authority, 'tis a con- 
siderable advantage to the ill cause of such pretenders when they can 
Obtain a name and interest with the men of letters." 44 A still earlier 
commenl upon the value of good parly writers is in Harley's letter to 
Godolphin, which has been quoted elsewhere. 4 '' The practice recom- 
mended in thai letter of 1702 was reaffirmed by Shafteshury; through 
their ads, Swift and Defoe demons) raled the principle to he correct. 
Thereafter both Bolingbroke and Swift restated the facts, which may 
he summarized in the former's assertion that "it is evident that the 
minister, in every circumstance of life, stands in as much need of us 
publick writers, as we of him."'"' It was the pressure of practice that 
made these doctrines important for literary history. Men then trusted 
greatly in the political efficiency of competent writers, and as a result 
offered proper inducements to draw them away from other literary 
forms towards the political pamphlet and newspaper. 

The life records of Swift, Defoe, Addison, and Steele are the final 
arguments in the case against party writing. All four gave up their 
impulses towards self-expression and their hopes of enduring fame at 
"Characteristics, etc., (1900 ed.), I, 147-8. 
m Sec p. 47. 

v Works (1809 ed.), I, 181-2. For similar comments by Swift sec his "Letter 
to the Writer of the Occasional Paper," or his letters to Pope passim. 



134 PARTY POLITICS AMI FNOllSU JOURNALISM 

the prospecl of immediate advantage. The times demanded that the 

professional writer should try to direct public opinion, and he took up 
the task. This he did in no spirit of altruism, but simply as a means 
to self-support; his employer, the party agent, was also interested in 

Commercialized journalism for purely selfish reasons. As a result the 
typical man of letters during the reigns of Anne and the first two Georges 
was an intensely practical man, with little regard for the finer things oi 
his craft The only compensation for the resultant loss in imaginative 
writing came through the release of English literature from the bonds 
of private patronage. Temporarily political need imposed upon liter- 
ary genius greater restraints than those laid down by the formulae of 
neo-classical rules; an economic, not a critical, standard was supreme 
during the Augustan Age. Meanwhile the circulation of numerous 
journals was preparing a public that later bought works of genuine 
literarx worth, and so the writers themselves prepared the way for a 
new freedom. The pressing demands of unstable party rule brought 
about complete freedom oi speech, and released English men of letters 
from the embarrassing restraints inherent in a condition of dependence. 



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140 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

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142 PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

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\\\ PARTY POLITICS U*D ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

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London, 1913. 



INDKX 



Addison, Joseph, 5, 15 30, 39, 40, 74, 82, 
113, 132, i $3; ability as office holder, 
15; attacl i Defoe, 23 I, befort 1710, 
io, The Campaign, 10, 11, 16, 22; 
pared with Steele, 92; i ompart d 

v, il li Swill , '10; d( li in ci,| ( ;,ii | h, 10; 
a .in ( imI, I.S, 01, 70; hi:, opinion 

<>f i In- Examiner, 70; the Freeholder, 
80, 111,1 $2; under George [,89, in, 

ini e of, 92; as keeper of 1 1 ■ < - rec 

on!,, in, res i -I payment to, 91 ; the 
Kit Kai Club, 10; The Late Tryal 
mill Conviction <>j Count Tariff, 23; 
lettei to Delafaye, 91; the Old Whig, 
88; as patron, 12, 18, 92, 93 ff; the 
Peerage Bill, 88; pies to, 92, 94; 
Poem to His Majesty, 16; political 
Important <• of, is ff.; Pope and, 19 
ff.; A. Philips and, 18; praise ol 
Ticltell, 18; The Present State of tin: 
War, 10; quarrel wild Steele, 86; 
Secretary to the Regency, 89; state 
appointments of, 89-91; Steele and, 

75; summary of his work to 1714, 
24-5; turn to politics of, 17; as l ypi< :il 
of liis age, 15; as Whig literary advi 

sor, 36; why politically successful, 
132. 

Advisors, party, Addison and Swift as, 17. 

Allusions, political, reasons for, 1. 

Amhurst, Nicholas, 126 28. 

Anglesey, Earl of (John Annesley), 54, 
107. 

Anglo i )ui( li alliance, plan for, 71. 

Anne, Queen, 47, 81, 93, 102, passim; 
i oronation of, 1 ; favor to l tennis, 1 1 ; 
death of, 2 $, 82; Oxford's deception of 
28; pension to Steele, 74; party his- 
toric during reign of, 28; opinion of 

I'rior, 00 n.; on seditions printing, 
12; Speke's appeal to, 101; typical 
writer of her reign, characterized, 

134. 

Anonymous publication, penalty for, 77. 
Appeal lu Honour and Justice, An, 59. 



Applebee's Journal, 109, 112 and n. 

Arbuthnot, John, 11, 20,67, 

A. n;di, William, i "i, 122 

AhitiiHii i Major, 55. 

Atterbury, i>r. Pram Is, 1 1 n., 07, 1 15. 

A ul n m a , I (0 

Barber, John, 42. 

Barrymore, Jams , Earl of, '<> 

Bateson, T., rt fert nt i to, 50 d. 

Bathurst, Lord (Allen Bathurst), 127. 

Bet i Steal < lni>, 35. 

The Beggar' i Opera, 12 f and n. 

II. II, John, 50. 

Bei 1 1 ley, ( reorge, 74. 

Birt h, hi. i homas, quoted, 12 ' 

Blat i more, Sii Rit hard, 80 n. 

Blenheim, 1 1. 

Blount, Edward, 23. 

BoUngbroke, Henry St. John, 1 ,i vis 
count, 20, 31 n., 41, 101, 121 IT., 
130, 133; attacks Walpole, 125; and 
Cato, 25 and n.; the Craftsman, 120 
fT.; the Examiner, 31, 35, 65; as news 
director, 05; the Occasional Writer, 

127; OUt of power, 81; I'arnell and, 

42; his politit al < lub, 31 li., and the 
pr< b abroad, '>'> ff.; quarrel with 

Oxford, 82; The. Shepherd's Week, 

dedit ation of, 123; situation of, 1714, 

82; Swift and, 32; Trapp and, 08. 

Bolton, Duke of (Charles Poulett), 93. 
Books, piracy of, 3; subscription edition-, 
of, 3-5. 

Bool I lien, I OUntry, 2; syndicate of, 2. 

Book trade, 14; after loos, 2-5; bindran- 

< es to, 7; set mity of, in 1705, 2. 
Booth, Barton, 25 and n., 83. 

Hot Inner, Count II. C. von, 101. 

Boulter, Dr., Archbishop of Armagh, 97. 

Boyer, Abel, 41 and n., 07 n.; on Defoe, 
52 n.; the Post boy, 41; quoted, 13. 

Brett, Colonel Henry, 18. 
Bribes, offered by Whigs, 106. 
Britain, The, 71. 

Britannia Triumphant, 11. 



148 



PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 



British Apollo, The, 6; prosperity of, 62. 

British Journal, The, 120, 121. 

British Mercury, The, 78. 

Briton, The, 115, 120. 

Bromley, William, 28. 

Brooke, Henry, 131. 

Brown, Dr., 12. 

Buckley, Samuel, 34, 107, 108, 116. 

Budgell, Eustace, 17, 89, 93, 114 n. 

Burke, Edmund, 4 n. 

Burnet, Gilbert, 97, 100. 

Burnet, Thomas, 100. 

Button, Daniel, 17, 25. 

Cabinet, development of, under George I, 

81. 
Cadogan, William, 83. 
Campaign, The, 10, 11, 16, 22. 
Carey, Henry, 18. 
Carmen Saeculare, 69. 
Caroline, Queen, as Princess of Wales, 85, 

121, 122. 
Caryll, John, letter of Pope to, 19, 23. 
Case of Authors, The, etc., 128. 
Case of Schism, The, etc., 106. 
Catalogues, Term, 2 n. 
Catholic papers, 110, 116. 
Catholics, proclamation against, 101. 
Cato, political intent in, 24-5; Pope's 

prologue to, 22 n. 
Cato's Letters, 113. 
Cave, Edward, 110, 128. 
Champion, The, 127, 128, 132. 
Charterhouse, mastership of, Steele's plea 

for, 84. 
Chatterton, Thomas, patronage of, 4 n. 
Chesterfield, Earl of (Philip Dormer Stan- 
hope), 99, 126; Common Sense, 127. 
Chit-Chat, 86. 
Cibber, Colley, 83, 88, 122; laureate, 98; 

Non-Juror, 98; state appointments 

to, 98; Ximena, 88. 

Cibber, Theophilus, 121. 
City Intelligencer, The, 6. 
Clarendon, 3rd Earl of (Edward Hyde). 
44. 

Clayton, Mrs., 85. 



Club, political, general purposes of a, 

34-5; members of Bolingbroke's, 35 n. 
Cobham, Viscount (Richard Temple), 

127. 
Coffee-houses, London: Button's, 17, 25; 

as news centers, 1; Will's 19. 
Collection of Scandal- , A, 53. 
Collier, William, 83. 
Common Sense, 127. 
Compton, Hon. Spencer, 124, 130. 
Concanen, Matthew, 120. 
Conduct of the Allies, The, 38. 
Congreve, William, 39; Swift and, 44; 

state appointments of, 96. 
Conscious Lovers, The, dedication of, 88. 
Copyright, law of, 1709, 3. 
Corn-Cutter's Journal, The, 120. 
Country Parson's Address to the Lord 

Keeper, 12. 
Courthope, W. J., 22 n.; quoted, 19. 
Cowper, William, Lord Chancellor, 98. 
Coxe, William, 121. 
Crabbe, George, 4 n. 
Craftsman, The, 93, 119, 120, 123, 125 ff.; 

political value of, 128; why successful, 

129; writers for, 127. 
Craggs, James, the ycunger, 107 n. 
Crisis, The, 38, 53. 
Criticism, literary, effect of politics on, 

17, 132 ff. 
Curll, Edmund, 108; as Whig spy, 107. 
Daily Courant, The, 6, 34, 63, 113, 120, 

121. 
Daily Gazetteer, The, 120. 
Daily Post, The, 113. 
Dalton, Isaac, 106. 
Dart, John, 4 ff. 
Davis, Robert, 50. 
Dawlcy Farm, The, 126 n. 
Debates, parliamentary, reporting of, 

128. 
Declaration of 1688, The, 101. 
Defoe, Daniel, 47 ff., 112, 133; as advisor 

of Oxford, 48, 52; aliases of, 56n.; 

An Appeal to Honour and Justice, 57, 

59; attacks the Flying Post, 53-4, 

73n.; attacked by Addison, 23-24; 

compared with Swift, 9, 46, 60; 



INDEX 



149 



defence of self, 60; effect of party 
writing on, 8, 47, 80; The Family In- 
structor, 110; under George I, 104, 
113; under Godolphin, 51; govern- 
ment payments to, summarized, 55- 
58; influence of, before 1715, 59; in- 
trigues of, 1718, 108; Oxford's inter- 
est in, 47 ff.; pamphlets published by, 
56; pleas of, 50, 51 and n., 59, 67; 
political ideals of, 60; protected by 
Oxford, 52; release from Newgare, 
48; return to Tories, 1710, 52; re- 
turn to Whigs, 1715, 54, 107; the Re- 
view, 5, 8, 71n., passim; satires 
against, 109; on secret service, 48, 
49n.; secret service journeys, 49 ff.; 
The Shortest Way with Dissenters, 12; 
state payments to, 49 ff.; Steele's 
expulsion, 27 and n., 53 ff.; on trade, 
60, 64; treachery of, 55; True-Bom 
Englishman, 8, 110; under suspicion, 
52; work in 1718, 107. 

Delafaye, Charles, 107, 108, 116; Addi- 
son's letter to, 91. 

Delpeuch, Elias, 110. 

Dennis, John, 10-11. 

Diaper, William, 42. 

Director, The, 112 and n. 

Distribution of news- journals, method of, 
106, 107 and n. 

Dodington, George Bubb, 127, 130, 131; 
Young and, 124. 

Doggett, Thomas, 83. 

Don Quixote, 95. 

Dormer's News Letter, 108. 

Dorset, Duke of, Young and, 124. 

Drake, Dr. James, 12, 13. 

Drury Lane Theater, 87, 98. 

Dunciad, The, 121. 

Dunton, John, 100 and n., 101; quoted, 
102. 

Dyer's News-Letter, 12, 108. 

Economic demand, effect of. on literature, 
134. 

Economic reasons for party writing, 133. 

Edward and Eleanora, 130n. 

Electioneering, methods of, in 1722, 118. 

England, A Compleat History of, 2. 



English Advice to the Freeholders of 
England, 104, 106. 

Englishman, The, 25, 53, 74-6, 132; 
Second Series, 85, 111. 

Entertainer, The, 112. 

Escott, T. H. S., reference to, 37n. 

Essay, periodical, effect of politics on, 80, 
132 ff.; influence of, upon reading 
public, 6, 79. 

Eusden, Laurence, 103. 

Evening Post, The, 6. 

Examiner, The, 16, 29, 37, 38, 43, 67n., 
69, 71, 73, 77; Addison on, 24; 
attacks on, 70; Bolingbroke and, 35; 
foundation of, 31, 65 and n.; under 
George 1, 1 1 1 ; on journals, 63; on par- 
ty histories, 28; payment of writers 
for, 66; quarrel with the Guardian, 
74; on Steele, 26; Steele's comment 
on, 76; Swift's income from, asserted, 
101; tone of, 65; writers for, 67. 

Excise Bill, The, 126. 

Fantio, a Jew, threats against, 105. 

Female Tatler, The, 6. 

Fenton, Elijah, 35. 

Fiddes, Richard, 39, 42. 

Fielding, Henry, 127, 128. 

Finch, Lord (Daniel Finch), 27. 

Flying Post, The, 5, 6, 29, 53-4, 63, 73, 
78, 99, 104, 108, 115, 120; Defoe's 
issues of, 107. 

Flying Post and Medley, The, 54. 

Fog's Weekly Journal, 112n., 127 and n. 

Ford, Charles, as gazetteer, 43. 

Francklin, Richard, 129n. 

Free Briton, The, 29. 

Freedom of the press, See Press. 

Freedom of speech, See Speech. 

Freeholder, The, 86, 111, 132; on the 
Examiner, 70. 

Freeholder's Journal, The, quoted, 114. 

Freethinker, The, 111; writers for, 97. 

Freind, Robert, 67. 

Garth, Samuel, 16, 72, 102. 

Gawen, Thomas, 110. 

Gay, John, 20, 43, 121-27; The Beggar's 
Opera, 123 and n. 

Gazetteer, 43, 74; denned, 43n. 



150 



PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 



General History of Trade. A. 71. 
General Postscript, The, 6. 
General Remark, The, 6. 
Gentleman's Magazine, The, 121, 128. 
George I, SI, 107, 114; favors to Colley 
Cibber, 9S; favors to Steele, 83, 87, 
89; interest in letters, 29; persecu- 
tion of writers under, 116; plea to, 
from Addison, 90; poems to. S2; pow- 
er of press under, 117; promise of, to 
writers, 101; satires on, 1719, 110. 
George II, 122, 125, 12S; as Prince, 95, 101. 
Gildon, Charles, 7, 94. 
Glover, Richard, 127, 131. 
Godolphin, Sidney, Lord, 15, 153; and 

Defoe, 8, 47, 50, 51. 
Gordon, Thomas, 115. 114n., 117. 
Griffith, Richard, 125. 
Grub Street Journal, The, 120. 
Guardian, The, 19, 55. 74, 76, 152. 
Gustavus Vasa, 131. 

Halifax, Lord (Charles Montagu), 11. 16, 
50-00; Addison and, 10, S9-90; Con- 
greve and, 44, 96; Pope and, 23; 
Swift's appeal to, 9. 
Hampton Court, Steele's players at, 87. 
Hanover Club, The, 97. 
Hanover Post, The, 85. 
Harley, Robert, See Oxford, Earl of. 
Harrison, William, 41. 42n., 59. 
Harvey, Mr., prosecution of, 105. 
Hedges, Sir Charles, 90. 
Henley. John, 72, 120. 
Henry VIII, 28. 
Hermit, The, 80 and n. 
Hertford, Countess of, 130. 
Hervey, Lord (John Hervey\ 125. 
"High Fliers," 116. 
High German Doctor, The, 112 and n. 
Hind and the Panther, The. etc., 68. 
Histories, party, 18, 27; defined, 28. 
Honest True Briton, The, 115 and n., 120. 
Hornby, Charles, 106. 
Horneck, Philip, 112. 
Howe, John, 10. 
Howell, Mr., arrest of, 106. 
Hudibras Redbivtts, 13. 



Hughes, John, 80n., 98; Addison and 25; 

Steele and, 74-5. 
Hurt, William, 54, 104. 
Hutcheson, Archibald. 113. 
Hymn to the Pillory, 106. 
Hyp-Doctor, The. 120, 126b. 
Iliad, The, Pope's translation, 25, °4 n .; 

TickelTs, 04. 
Imaginative writing, reason for the lack 

of, 134. 
Immorality, proclamation against. 12. 
Independent Whig, The, 113. 
Jacobites: papers of. 106. 112; power in 

1715, 01; rebellion of, 1715. 105; 

writers against, 1715. 93. 
Jervas, Charles, 25. 
Johnson, Samuel, 111, 125 and n., 131. 
Journal to Stella, The. quoted, 56, 39, 42. 
Journals, See Xews journals. 
Judas discover'd. etc., 55n. 
Kennett. Bishop. 38, 72. 
King. William. 11. 67. 
King George's Farewell, etc., 105. 
Kit-Kat Club, The, 10. 16, 35. 
Lansdowne, Lord (George Granville\ 11, 

20. 
Lay Monastery. The SOn. 
Lay Monk, The, 80 and n. 
Lee, William, SS and n., 61, 107. 
Legion's Humble Address to the Lords. 12. 
Leon id as. 131. 
Leslie. Mr.. 12. 
L'Estrange, Roger, 106. 
Letter to the Ear! of Oxford, 4. SS. 
Letter to Secretary Harley, A, 13. 
Letter to the West Country Clothier, A. 20. 
Lewis, Erasmus. 45. 
Lewis, Thomas, 112. 

Libel, proclamation against seditious, 104. 
Licensing Act. The, reference to, 2, 3, 5. 
Lintot, publishing house of, 2. 
Literary periodicals, effect of politics on, 

80. 
London, 131. 
London Gazette, The, 6, and n., 28, 52, 02 

and n., 63. 
London Journal, The, 113 and n., 114 and 

n., 120, 121. 



1NPKX 



151 



Lover, The, 7o. 

Luttrell, Narcissus, 12, 48. 

Lyttleton, George, 130. 

Macclesfield, tsl earl of, 85, 107. 

Mainwaring, Arthur, 72, 73 and n.j on 

the Examiner, 32; on Prior, (>*'; on 

Swift, 37. 
Mallet, David, 127, 131 and n. 
Manley, Mrs. Mary de la Riviere, 43, 65 

and n.. (>0, 07 and n. 

Manley, Roger, 121. 

Manners, 12o. 

Mar, Duke of (John Erskine), 106. 

Marlborough, Duke of (John Churchill), 

10, 13, 31. 
Ma: ham. Samuel, Lord, 66. 
Matthews, John, 110. 
Mawson, Robert, 105. 
Medley, The, 32, 63, 72 and n., 73, 

the Examiner, 70; paj of writers for, 

102; quoted 32. 
Meetings, political, first, 118. 
Memoirs of Count Tariff, The. etc ,24. 
Mercator, The, 24, 52, 64 and a., 71. 
Mercurius Politicus, 108. 
Minister, a, his need of writers, 133. 
Mist, Nathaniel, 10S, 123, 129n.; his 

Journal, 29, 106, 108-10, U2n., 127. 
Mitchell, Joseph, 123. 
Moderator, The, 112 and n. 
Mole-worth, Robert, Lord, ILL 

Monument, The, 10. 

Morley, Henry, quoted, On. 

Morley, John, 97. 

Muses Mercury, The, 1-ln. 

Nast, Thomas, 106. 

Negus, Samuel, 110-17. 

New Atalantis, The, 43, 65. 

Newcastle, Duke of (Thomas Pelham 

Holies), 87 ff., 98, 102, 12'). 
News hawkers, arrest of, 105, 106, 110; 

proclamation against, 1718, L06. 
News journals, circulation of, 170°, 6; 

circulation of, 1710, 6; against George 

I, 112; cost of, under George II, 129; 
increased number of, after 1695, 2. 5; 
distribution of, 1 , 106, 107 and n., 
110, 115, 119; hindrances to, trade, 



7; London, in 170*) and in 1712, 70; 
Non juror papers, 1 Id; Dumber of, in 
1709, S (>; in 1711, 61; 1712 15, 61; 
1723, ILL 110 17; profits from. 17110. 
63; prosecution of, 10. 12 13, 115, 

120; state purchase of, 1L1 and n ; 
subsidized, 5, 110. 

Newton, Sir Laac, 130. 

A,';; Juror, The. OS. 

Non juror papers, 116. 

Norfolk Steward, The, 126n. 

Nottingham, Earl of (Daniel Finch), 10. 

Observator, The, 6, 10, 63, 77. 

Occasional Writer, The, 127. 

Ocean, 124. 

()</,-, An, 106. 

Odell, Thomas, 99, 100. 

Oldisworth, William, 67, 6Sn., 111. 

Oldmixon, John, 72, 73 100, 102; state 
appointments of, 102; income from 
the Medley, 102; quoted, 69, 72. 

Old Whig, The, ^. 

Oldys, William, quoted, 99. 

On the Death of Mr. Addison, 04. 

Ormonde, Duke of (James Butler), 45, 91. 

Orrery, Earl of (Charles Boyle), 34, 03, 
127. 

Osborne, Thomas, 114n. 

Oxford, Earl of (Robert Harley), 20,47 ff., 
50, 81, 104, passim; advised by 
Defoe, 48; aid to Defoe, 48; Mrs. 
Manley and, 00; on the Peerage Bill, 
88; position of in 1710, 30; return to 
power, 1710, 30 ff., 52; praised, 43; 
as promoter of party journalism, 
31, 47, 59, 80; quarrel with Boling- 
broke, 82; spares Congreve, 44; 
Steele and, 40, 53, 74. 

Pamphlets, distribution of, 106, 107; 
Steele's and Swift's, 38. 

Parker, Thomas, See Macclesfield. 

Parncll, Thomas, 12, 42. 

Parties, political, growth of, 1; their 

need of writers, S, 133. 
Party journals, rise of, 14. 
Party politics, effect of, upon literary 

criticism, 17. 



152 



PARTY POLITICS AND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 



Party writers, why needed, 8, 133-34; 
payment of, under Oxford, 66 ff.; 
payment of, under George I, 103; 
payment of, under Walpole's advice, 
117, 119-20; treatment of, under 
George 1, 103. 
Party writing, effect of, on Defoe, 47; 
general effect of, on writers, 79-80; 
value of, to Addison, 132; value of, 
to Steele, 132. 
Party writings, distribution of, 106, 

107n., 110, 115, 119. 
Pasquin, 115. 

Patronage: freeing of writers from, 134; 
literary, contemporary comment on, 
132 ff.; literary, of the Craftsman 
group, 129 ff.; political, 17 ff., 118, 
passim; political, effect of, by 1710, 
14, 79; political, contemporary com- 
ment on, 132 ff.; private, decline of, 
2-6, 14, 59, 100. 
Paul, PI. G., reference to, 11 and n. 
Pearce, Dr. 97. 
Peerage Bill, The, 88, 92. 
Pembroke, Earl of (Thomas Herbert), 11. 
Pensions, state, to writers, 107, 114; to 
Addison, 16; effect of, in 1723, 116; 
under George II, 124; to Mallet, 131; 
to Thomson, 130. 
Periodical essay, See Essay. 
Persecution of writers, 1710-14, 32 ff.; 

1714-21, 104. 
Peterborough, Earl of (Charles Mor- 

daunt), 43, 45. 
Philips, Mr., a printer, arrest of, 116. 
Philips, Ambrose, 18, 39, 82, 97n., Ill; 
appointments of, 97; the Free- 
thinker, 97, 111. 
Philips, John, 11. 
Pilkington, Matthew, 42. 
Pillory, use of, as political punishment, 

33. 
Pirating of books, 2. 
Pitt, William (Earl of Chatham), 119. 
Plain Dealer, The, 71 and n., 112 and n. 
Plays, prohibited, printing of, 132 and n. 
Plebian, The, 88. 
Poem on the Battle of Raniillies, A, 11. 



Poem to His Majesty, A , 16. 

Political journals: in 1712, 63; effect of, 

upon literary taste, 80. 
Political meetings, first, 118. 
Politics, effect of, on writers, 1, 9, 11; 

effect of, on literary journals, 7. 
Pope, Alexander, 19 ff., 25, 74, 93, 99, 
121, 122, 126 and n., 127, 131; 
Addison's influence with, 19 ff.; 
chief desires of, 21; dedication of his 
Iliad, 94n.; Dennis and, 11 n.; under 
George II, 126; the Grub Street 
Journal, 126; Halifax and, 23; the 
Hyp-Doctor on, 126n.; opinion of, on 
Queen Anne's reign, 23; party inter- 
est of, 126; position of, in 1712, 19- 
20; Prologue to Cato, 22n.; Swift 
and, 20 ff., 122n.; Warton on, 21- 
22; Windsor Forest, 20 ff. 

Portland, Duchess of, 125. 

Post Boy, The, 71 n. 

Postboy, The, 6, 41, 63, 72 n., 76 n. 

Postboy Junior, The, 6. 

Postman, The, 6, 63, 78. 

Post-office, the, misuse of, 27, 118-19. 

Present Stale of the War, The, etc., 16. 

Press; control of, in 1718, 107; under 
George I, 81; freedom of, growth in, 
5, 128, 129 and n.; freedom of, and 
prohibited plays, 132 and n.; re- 
striction of, 1702 proclamation for, 
12. 

Pretender, the old (James Edward), 27, 
38, 111, 115. 

Printers, arrest of, 33, 104, 106, 116, 
129 n.; boycott by, of government 
spy, 117; fear of, in 1716, 105. 

Prosecution of news journals, 10, 12-13; 
decrease of, 129; failure of, 115; 
Harley's reason for, asserted, 13. 

Protestant Post-Boy, The, 55, 63, 78. 

Public Spirit of the Whigs, The, 38. 

Publishers, London, increased number of, 
2,5. 

Prior, Matthew, 10 and n., 67, 68 ff., 
105 n. 

Private patronage, See Patronage. 

Projector, The, 112. 



INDEX 



153 



Pulteney, Sir William (Earl of Bath), 121, 

126. 
Pulteney, David, 126. 
Queensberry, 3rd Duke of (Charles 

Douglas), 127. 
Raikes, Robert, 110. 

Ralph, James, 127, 128; quoted, 103, 132. 
Rambler, The, 111. 
Reader, The, 75 and n., 76. 
Reading public, the, effect on, of party 
journals, 134; during Queen Anne's 
reign, 79. 
Read's Weekly Journal, 112, 120. 
Redmayne, Mr., a printer, 116. 
Rehearsal Revived, The, 6. 
Reprisal, The, 112 and n. 
Resigners Vindicated, 100. 
Review, The, 5, 6, 49, 52, 63, 71 and n.; 
foundation of, 8, 47, 64; under 
Godolphin, 51; importance of, 8; 
report on, 1708, 51; tone of, 65. 
Revolution of 1688, the effect of, upon 

parties, 1 . 
Rewards, government, for information, 

33 n., 104. 
Ridpath, George, 5, 29, 33 n. 54, 73, 77, 

82, 99. 
Robethon, Jean de, 94. 
Robin's Last Shift 105. 
Roper, Abel, 72 n., 76 n. 
Rowe, Nicholas, 39, 42, 82, 87, 95-6, 102; 
his dedications, 95 n.; made laureate, 
95; state appointments of, 95-6; 
Tamerlane, 95. 
Royal Gtatitude, etc., 102. 
Royal Progress, The, 93. 
Rules, critical, and economic demand, 

compared, 134. 
Sacheverell, Dr. Henry, 9, 11, 30, 68. 
St. James Jouma', The, 114. 
St. John, Henry, See Bolingbroke. 
Sales profits, of the London Gazette and 
British Apollo, 62-3; of the Spectator 
and Taller, 132, of Thomson's poems, 
130. 
Savage, Richard, 124. 
Scotland, Defoe's journeys in, 49 ff. 
Scots Atlantis, The, 55. 



Scourge, The, 112, 114. 

Scriblerus Club, 37. 

Secret Committee of 1742, 119 ff. 

Secret service, Defoe's recommendations 
for, 48; expenditure for, 1704, 48. 

Secret service money: how distributed, 
84, 119. 

Settle, Elkanah, 5 n. 

Sewell, George, 100. 

Shaftesbury, Third Earl of (Anthony 
Ashley Cooper), 133. 

Shift shifted, The, 105, 108. 

Short History of the Parliament, The, 29. 

Shortest Way with Dissenters, The, 12. 

Smith, Edmund, 12, 18, 28. 

Some Advice to the October Club, etc., 38. 

Somers, Lord (John Somers), 11, 16. 

Somerset, Duke of (Charles Seymour), 96. 

Somerset, Duchess of, 45. 

South Sea schemes, 52, 112, 113. 

Spectator, The, 6, and n., 7, 9, 22, 61, 76, 80 
and n., 94, 111, 132; dates of discon- 
tinuance, 73; nonpartisan tone of, 25, 
41 n.; political tone of, 74; and the 
reading public, 6 and n., 79; why 
dropped, 17, 80; writers for, 18. 

Speadatist, The, 121. 

Speech, freedom of: increased, 1, 117, 
129; influence of the Craftsman, 128. 

Speke, Hugh, 100, 101. 

Spies, government, rewards to, 106; work 
of, 33, 51, 104, 106, 116. 

Spinster, The, 112. 

Splendid Shilling, The, 11. 

Spring, 130. 

Stamp Act of 1712: effect of, 78; political 
intent of, 33; terms of, 33, 76-7. 

Stanhope, James, 27, 81, 104, 111. 

Stanley, John, 110. 

Stationers Company, the, duties of, 2. 

Steele, Sir Richard, 39, 72, 111, 113, 132, 
133; Addison's power over, 25; 
appeals of, 85; Whig appointments of, 
83, 86; comments on, in Chit-Chat, 
86; compared with Addison, 92; com- 
plaint against, 87; The Conscious 
Lovers, 88; The Crisis, 38; The 
Englishman, 25, 53, 74-6, 85, 111, 



154 



PART* POLITICS IND ENGLISH JOURNALISM 



132; as hi es iaj ist, 15, 61, 7 i >; favors 
from Georg< [,83 8 . s > ..- n etteer, 
74; the ffowiw /Vx:, 85; 

38 n ; income of, 62, 82 a., 85, 8' . 
.4 I . . ell.. 
88 th< ...... IS and n.; in parlia 

im-nt. 26, 53 n . 74. 75. 84; the 
Peerage Bill, 88; the . 88; as 

.i politician, 26; position of, after 

1 7 14, 82 and n.; quarrel with AiKii 
son, 86; the Ri nation 
from -laic appointments, 74; the 
Scot . ret pa\ ments to, 

1715, 84; summary of his part) 
work, 7c, the /'.;;..', 5, ('. 7. 41, 61, 

■'. 132; theatrical difficulties, 
87 iT ; under Dor) patronage, 40; 

6; his turn to politics, 

is typical of his age, 15; Wal 

pole's aid to, .' . 28, 88, 89, 
Stephens, Henry, 97, 
Sterling, James, 121. 
Stubbs, George, l) 7. 
Subscription editions, I n 
Subsidies, government, to Defoe, 5" 59; 

effect of, on writers, 14, 116; to news 

journals, 71, 119, 
Suffolk, Duchess of (Henrietta Howard), 

121 123, 126 
130 
Sunderland, Earl of (Charles Spencer), 30, 

51,81,90,93,99; Defoeand, 108; the 
. 62, 
Sunderland, John, lOo. 

. o 

Swift, Jonathan, Dean of St. Patrick's, 
30 B , .v. 12 133; Iddison and, 

39 140; ;:i ff.; appeal to 
Oxford, . ; 7. 67; appeal to Walpole, 
122; appointment to St. Patrick's, 45; 

. ks on. ii and n.; before 1710. 
S ff.; compared with Addison 
compared with Defoe, 9, 46, 60; 
r, 38; Coi 

B 

tor. of politics upon. 0, 



. 38, 65, ('7 and d . 
undei George 1 1. 1 26; Harrison and, 
41, 59; 

. 38 n, . income under 
Oxford, asserted, 101; in Ireland, 9; 
Bishop ELennett on, 38 9; Mis. Man 
lej and, 43; as news director, 17, 18, 
36, 39, 12, 65; motives of, 37 ami a.; 
Oxford and, 30 H , 36, 37, 38, 15; as 
patron. 41 t 1,92; A Philips and, 39; 
Pope and, 20 and n . 1 22 n ; the Post- 
boy, ' S 
38; Rowe and, 95; SacheverelTs 
sermon, effect of, on Swift, 9; Scrib 

K'lus Club, o7; situation of. 1710. 36; 

?, etc . 38 n.; Stamp Act 
ol r 12, 77; Steele and, 39; on Steele, 
74; summary of his I 

,9; Walpole and, 122 
23. 
S> ndicate publication, 
falbot, l oul (Charles ralbot), I 

. 95 
taste, literary, during Omen A: 
reign 6; effect on, of politics, I 

rate, Naluun. 05. 

. 5, o. '>, 41. 01. 62 132; popu- 
larity of, 7 and n.. 79; Harrison's, 41, 

1'honus, J. M., ivu 1 1 n. 

rhomson, James, 127, 130 ff.; dedications 
of his poems, 130; 

a, 130 n . 
130 n., 131; pension 10. 130; profits 
from sales. 130 
....»•. ill n. 
rickell, l'homas. :: n.. 71, 82, 93; his 
. part} poems of. ^4 and 

n.;0 ■ 94; 

■ 
rilson. George, 51. 

Poland. John, 101. 

lon-on. publishing house of. J. 

Donson, Jacob, appeal to, 102; bribe to. 

Ill n. 



INDEX 



155 



Tooke, Mr, 107. 

Tory party: befor* 1 70 [brake's 

po vT iii, Jl; in 1714, 82; journal of, 
1710H, 017^; journals of, under 
:■■• I, 108, 112; party history, 27; 
Prior and, 69; prosecution of ii i lead- 
1715, 105; < ford, 1710, 

30; St<< lc a dependent, 40; Swift and, 
40 ff , 45; Walpole'-, attack upon, 
1713, 28; writers for, 1710 14, 67 ff. 

7V>ry Taller, The, 71 and n. 

Townshend, discount (Charles), 

10 J, 107, 108. 
Trapp, Joseph, 07, 68 and n. 

I tnen( , delay in, 42 n., 57, 

59; method of, 84, 119; to Oldi worth, 
07. 

I ,82, 115. 
Trenchard, John, 113, 114 nu, 117. 
True Born Englishman, 7 he, 8. 
I "rut Briton, The, 1 15. 
Truth found out, The, etc., 1%. 
Tutchin, John, 10, 77. 

appointments 
of, 08 and n. 
Vernon, Sir Richard, 20. 
Vi'tor, Benjamin, 125. 

i onomic rea on for, I, 
134. 
Vox Populi, etc, 110. 

Frederick, Prince of, 101, 121, 124, 

125, 120, 130, 131. 

Walpole, Robert, Carl of Orford, 73, 81, 

107. 111, 113; Addi /,-, and, 29; aid 

, 27, 88, 89; Dennis and, 

11 n.; bunion's petition to, 102; 

,1 26; interest in journalism 
before 1714, 28-29; journal, of, 114 
ff.; on tbi rerof, 

in 1714, 27; purchase of journals, 
114; satirized, 105, 109, 127; Savage 
and, 124; Secret ComrniU.ee and, 
119 ff.; 'J horn. on and, 130; work 
und' ' ' , , -■■' I. 104, 117; work under 

rge If, 118; treatment of m 
118, 121; the True Briton a.u 
115; Vanbrugh and, 98 n.; Voung 
and, 124. 



Walthoe, John, 84, 120 

Warburfoii, William, 1 32. 

Ward, Edward, 1 i and n. 

Warner, Sir ',■ or:-< 48 n. 

Warton, Joseph, quoted, 21-22. 

Journal, I Ik . 113; quoted, 99. 
ll'"/ ! he, q loted, 99 

WeM /if, 120. 

Wei ted, Leonard, S4, 
West, kiehard, 97. 
Westmonasteriwn, etc., 5. 

106. 
Wharton, Duke of (Philip Wharton;, 115; 
Voung and, 121. 

Wharton, b>r<j Wharton), 89, 

90 91, 98, 99. 

Whately, Stephen, 73, 101; letter of, to 
Walpole, 28 9; Whig 29. 

Whig Examiner, The, 16, 17, 72; con- 
tributors to, 72. 

Whig party: Addison's pension from, 16; 

Addison's power in, 15 ff.; bribes 
offered by, 1716, 106; condition of, 
in 1708, 9; in 1714, 82; defeat of, at 
rial, 53; journals of, 1710- 
14, 72-81; journals of, under George 
II, 129; patronage of writers, under 
George 1, 81 ff., 103; under George If, 
120; party history of, 18; prosecu- 
tions of, 1715, 105; spies of, under 
George I, 106-7; treatment of Swift, 
9; pension of, to writers, 1718, 107. 

Whisperer, The, 6. 

Whitehall Evening Post, The, 109, 1 10, 1 1 3. 

Whitehead, Paul, 126. 

Wilkins, W. 120. 

Wilks, Robert, j 

William III, 1, 68, 95, 100, 129; Addison 
and, 16; Dennis and, 10. 

Williams, Sir Charles Hanbury, 123. 

Willies, John, 110. 

Windsor Forest, 20-22. 

Winter, 1 30. 

Wolff, Mr., a printer, 129 n. 

Writers, party, Bolingbroke and, 32; 
buying off of, 1718, 107; general 
effect of politics upon, 11 ; need for, in 
1702, 47; pensions to, 1718, 107; 



156 r\Ki'\ POLITICS A\n ENGLISH JOURNALISM 

treatment of, bj Whigs, 103; treat- Ximcna, 88. 

menl of. i-x Walpole, 118, I21j value Yalden, Thomas, 11. 

of, to .i minister, 133; value of, to York, A/chbishop of, 45. 

parties, 80; under Walpole, comments Yorke, Philip (1st Karl of Hardwicke), 

on. 121; Whig payments to. 1 12. 12'). 

Wye, William, HO. Young, Edward, 82, 124, 127; letter of, 

Wyndham, Sir William, 66, 126. quoted, 125. 






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